Category: Pass The Popcorn!

Let it burn!

GIVE TIL IT HURTS!

Problem, meet solution

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Ah, the wondrous possibilities fairly well leap from the page, wildly waving their arms and demanding attention.

Watch: Drag Queens Surround the Kennedy Center in Protest of Trump’s Takeover
Hundreds of protesters — many of them clad in big wigs, makeup, and lots of leather — descended on the Kennedy Center on Saturday as part of a “Rally & March for Drag.” It was the latest in a series of protests in response to President Donald Trump’s ban on Kennedy Center drag productions, many of them aimed at LGBTQ+ youth under 18.

“This president is demonizing a marginalized community in order to control the arts in America. It’s shameful, immoral, and weak,” drag artist Tara Hoot told The Advocate before the event. “At a time when our artists and LGBTQ+ communities are under attack more than ever, we need to show up and speak up against this fascist takeover of the arts.”

Last month, President Trump ousted Joe Biden-appointed board members and named U.S. envoy Richard Grenell the organization’s chairman.

“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on February 7. “The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

How very disappointing, that I have yet to see even one daring soul suggest rounding up all the annoying, tucked-peenie protesters, sealing them up inside a cargo bay of one of Elon’s Falcon 9 rockets, and launching them directly into the Sun forthwith.

(Via Joe)

How deathless is DONE

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The making of a masterpiece.

“Absence of Malice” and Why Some Movies Are Timeless
When a great satire is made, one that touches on themes that are endemic and universal to the worlds of which they make fun, what happens is that reality keeps coming back around and making those movies relevant all over again. Our tragicomic withdrawal from Afghanistan echoed the futility of the daily lives of the drafted surgeons of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H). Our seemingly aimless and ineffective attempts to counter Putin in the Ukraine can sometimes make us believe that nothing much has changed in the halls of the Pentagon since Buck Turgidson, President Muffley and General Ripper hammed it up in Dr. Strangelove’s “War Room.” And “The Player” and “Network” so perfectly skewer Hollywood and the News Media that all these years later, they remind us that almost nothing about those industries has changed over the ensuing decades.

But it’s not only comedies and satires that can achieve this kind of cultural resonance… history rhymes, if it does not repeat, as they say, and so dramatic thrillers like “Serpico”, “All The President’s Men”, “Three Days of the Condor”, “Taxi Driver” and “Death Wish” also seem more relevant than ever, these days.

In the same vein, Sydney Pollack’s 1981 masterpiece “Absence of Malice” is one of those movies that perfectly skewers its subject, an unholy alliance between the press and the very government the press is meant to hold in check. It is so well done, that the drama is timeless. A movie that seems more prescient now, than it did when it was made.

The opening credits of “Malice” show us a full edition of a local Miami newspaper being written, typeset and printed. As the paper evolves into its final form, the headlines tell us that a powerful union boss has been missing for six months and is presumed dead, and that the Justice Department, the Miami PD and the DA are under trememdous pressure to solve the case.

Post credits we meet the Federal Prosecutor in charge of that case, Elliot Rosen (Bob Balaban), who has decided that a successful liquor wholesaler named Michael Gallagher, played by Paul Newman who was still one of the best looking men in the world even at age 56, must himself be involved in the disappearance in some way. Rosen doesn’t believe this because of any evidence he’s collected, he has none at all, but because Gallagher’s deceased father was affiliated with the local anti-union mob and so, therefore, his son must also be “connected”… quod erat demonstrandum.

Later, when the Miami Dade DA asks him which crime Gallagher is suspected of committing, Rosen answers “what’s the difference?”

“So you’re squeezing him?” asks the DA.

“You got somebody better?” is Rosen’s chilling response.

Unfortunately for Rosen, the US Consitution exists, and he cannot arrest Gallagher, put him in a deep dark hole, and sweat it out of him. So, he decides to put public pressure on the businessman in hopes he will break. To do this, he targets a young cub reporter named Megan Carter, played by Sally Field, as his weapon of choice. He leaks the existence of his “investigation” to Carter who writes an article that comes up just short of accusing Gallagher of the crime, an inferred accusation which Rosen knows will embarrass the man and destroy both his social standing in Miami as well as his business… eggs, meet omelette.

By now this should all be starting to sound very familiar.

Certainly it should be to attentive CF Lifers, mainly because of this clip featuring the incomparable Wilford Brimley.

I’ve run it here again and again, and watched it even more times, and it ain’t never getting old.

Hats off to our classy, beautiful, politically astute First Lady

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I suppose as I type this Trump must be smack dab in the middle of tonight’s big speech to Congress, which is of little or no real import far as I’m concerned. This story, on the other hand, struck just the right note with me.

The First Lady’s Guest List for Tonight Is Fascinating
When Donald Trump takes the stage to deliver his speech to a joint session of Congress tonight, his wife, Melania, will be in the audience, and she’ll have several unique guests with her. But they’re not celebrities or dignitaries. They’re everyday Americans “from all different walks of life” whose lives have been impacted by “disaster wrought by the previous administration.”

Some of the First Lady’s guests have been victims of crimes committed by people who are in the United States illegally, like Allyson and Lauren Phillips of Woodstock, Ga. You might know them better as the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the young nursing student who was brutally murdered on the University of Georgia campus by a Venezuelan gang member who was not only in the U.S. illegally but had also committed many previous crimes.

Mrs. Trump will also have Alexis Nungaray of Houston, Texas, at the speech. Nungaray’s 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was murdered by two men whom the Biden administration caught at the border and released into the U.S. just weeks before they committed the heinous crime. U.S. Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz will be in attendance as well. While serving in Texas, he’s been shot at many times by dangerous cartel members.

Remember Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was shot and killed when a gunman tried to assassinate Trump at a rally last July? His widow, Helen, and their daughters, Allyson and Kaylee, will join the first lady on Tuesday night.

Former Russian hostage Marc Fogel and his 95-year-old mother, Malphine of Butler, Pa., will be there, too. The history teacher was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison for attempting to visit the country with medical marijuana. In February, after making a promise to Malphine, Trump secured his release and even invited Marc to the White House upon returning to the U.S.

A couple of the First Lady’s guests have been the victims of abhorrent gender issues. January Littlejohn of Tallahassee, Fla., is the mother of a young girl whose “middle school socially transitioned” her “to a different sexual identity without January and her husband’s knowledge or permission.” Littlejohn is now a parents’ rights advocate.

Payton McNabb of Murphy, N.C., a young female volleyball player who had to step away from the sport “when a biological man playing on the opposing women’s team spiked the volleyball at Payton’s face, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury,” will be there. McNabb is now a member of the Independent Women’s Forum and an advocate for girls’ sports.

Lots more victims of the misbegotten, illegitimate, and wholly criminal Biden junta listed at the link. I’m happy to see them all receive the recognition they so richly deserve from an actual President and his caring, compassionate wife. Speeches? We don’ need no steenking speeches—not when the guest list says everything anybody needs to know, and says it so very well.

Update! The one and only thing that might actually get me interested in Trump’s big speech.

Via WRSA.

Deep dive into some dirty water

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EXCELLENT run-down of the DOGE dustup, what it all means, the history behind it, how Real Americans should perceive and interpret it, and more, from Jeffrey A Tucker. It’s a Tweet/X/whatever, and a pretty long ‘un too, so rather than do an embed of the original post I’ll just fast forward to the inevitable “Show more…” workaround.

I’m concerned that many people do not understand the historical and institutional context in which the DOGE labor reforms are unfolding. They look at this as if these are some random, chaotic, arbitrary, strange, and even cruel measures to impose on a devoted civil service. 

The reality is very different, and I’m not even sure that Elon entirely understands this. For more than a century, even dating back to 1883, the civil service has grown and grown without check from the elected branch, either the presidency or the legislature . The bureaucracies have ballooned from a few to 450 or so. The bloat and absurdities have grown too. 

Get this: no one has ever known what to do about it. Not Coolidge, not Hoover, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Clinton, no one. No president has been able to crack this nut. The only reforms ever to have made it through are those that make the administrative state bigger, never smaller. 

Countless cabinet secretaries have come and gone, always with the intention of making a change but leaving saddened, demoralized, outwitted, outgunned, and ultimately devoured. 

No president has seriously taken on this problem because they simply did not know how. The unions are powerful, the intimidation from the deep institutional knowledge is overwhelming, the fear of the media as been powerful, and every single president comes to power vaguely feeling threatened by the intelligence agencies. The industries that have captured every single agency were also far too powerful to unseat or control. 

This combination of institutional inertia has blocked serious reform for a full century. No one has dared. No one has even had a theory or strategy about what to do about this problem. It had become so terrible that most people in politics have simply surrendered, like homeowners who know there are rats in the basement and bats in the attic but long ago gave up trying to fix the issue. 

All this time, the American people have felt themselves ever more oppressed, weighed upon, taxed and regulated, spied upon, brow beaten, and otherwise overwhelmed. Voting never made any difference because the politicians no longer controlled the system. The bureaucracies ruled all. 

The Biden years underscored the point. We didn’t even need a conscious and present executive. We only needed a figurehead to pretend to be president, just like the Soviet premiers in the old days. The institutions ran everything and the people controlled nothing. 

How to deal with this? Trump alone figured it out in his last term: he simply took charge of the agencies in a limited way. There were screams of horror and plots galore. They performed a long stream of clever schemes to destroy him and show him who is boss, which is not the democratically elected president but the forces behind the scenes. 

The job of the president, goes the message from all the insiders, is to PRETEND to be in charge but not actually do anything meaningful. Shut up, mug up, obey, and disturb nothing, let the administrative state do its thing without oversight or disruption, and then you will get your honorary library and bestselling autobiography and go down in history as great. 

Trump refused the deal and look what happened. 

Four years have gone by and Trump is back again, this time with a determination to slay this beast, one that he knows all-to-well. The efforts of DOGE and MAHA and MAGA are epic in scope, breaking a century of pathetic acquiescence toward the deep, middle, and shallow states, at last using moral courage to confront the problem head on, come what may. 

They are profoundly aware that they MUST act fast and with some degree of ferocity, even recklessness, else we will default back to the status quo of leaders who pretend to be in charge while the embedded system runs things behind the scenes. 

It has been this way for TOO LONG. The voters this time have demanded change, and mustered the faith to believe that change is possible. This is precisely what DOGE is attempting, to make good on a promise, a promise that for once the voters actually believed was credible. 

They simply must succeed. There might never be another chance. The way of failure is the path everyone knows the US was on, toward economic stagnation, political scolerosis, and eventual irrelevance in the unfolding of the next stage of social evolution.

As comprehensive, clear-cut, and just dead-on-point good as we’re ever gonna see, I believe. I started to do a little boldfacing here and there (I especially dug that “voters…have demanded change, and mustered the faith to believe that change is possible” bit), but then it hit me that there’s just way too much rich, buttery goodness here to easily be able to find a stopping point once I got started. Some things are just better left alone; they stand well enough on their own, thanks.

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Just trying to get ahead

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Only one real reason I’m running this story at all, and if you haven’t figured it out by the second or third paragraph…well, I just don’t really know what to tell ya about that.

Elon Musk’s ultimatum email to federal workers sets up power struggle in DC, among top Trump officials
Elon Musk is finding himself locked in a power struggle with top Trump administration officials over an out-of-the-blue email blast to federal workers Saturday demanding that they list their professional accomplishments last week — or risk being fired.

Multiple Trump-appointed agency and department heads — including the Department of Defense, State Department and FBI — have instructed their employees to ignore the email despite the billionaire’s public warning that “failure to respond” by 11:59 p.m. Monday “will be taken as a resignation.”

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already pushed for sweeping personnel cuts across the government, with the latest move raising concerns that the Tesla CEO intends to make more personnel decisions based on replies to the missive.

“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) griped on X.

“Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”

Uh huh. Poor put-upon souls, with all those difficult, demanding “unheralded jobs” they for some mysterious reason don’t seem able to describe, delineate, or even speak about in any way, shape, or form. And now, the entirely obvious video embed.

Heh.

Jurassic Media “big names” taking The Walk

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This hurts me so, so much, I just…I just can’t even.

And Another One Gone: Veteran NBC News Anchor Heads for the Exit
Joyless (ok, I’ll be a good boy, her name is Joy) Reid is out at MSNBC. TrumpHating fanatic Jim Acosta was relegated to a dismal timeslot at CNN, so he took his ball and went home. He resigned and is now doing podcasts that have less production quality than “Wayne’s World.” Chris Wallace, who left Fox News for greener pastures at CNN, announced his departure from that network less than a week after Trump’s November election win. Norah O’Donnell “voluntarily” gave up the anchor chair made famous by fibbing Dan Rather, delivering her last broadcast on January 23. Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd left NBC in January.

They’re dropping like flies.

And now, there’s another one gone: after ten years manning the anchor’s desk at NBC News, Lester Holt is saying goodbye.

That’s a seriously scrumptious litany of shitlib “journolismist” luminaries up there in that first ‘graph, one sure to gladden the heart of any ReichWingNaziDeathBeast OG Blogger such as li’l ol’ moi. Keep the updates coming, Bob, I beg of you. As for the execrable Lester Holt: See ya, wouldn’t wanna BE ya, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord etc etc.

Update! And while we’re on the subject, an email update from the NY Post just came over the transom with further deets on KillJoy Reid’s Long Goodbye.

Joy Reid bid farewell as MSNBC hosts compare her show’s sudden cancellation to ‘losing a limb’ during emotional segment
Ousted MSNBC host Joy Reid welcomed her fellow network stars onto her canceled show during its last minutes on Monday night to bid her a final farewell and reflect on their time together.

The network announced the sudden cancellation of “The ReidOut” on Sunday night after four and a half years on the air.

Reid used her final hour on television for the foreseeable future to remind her audience about the importance of remaining vigilant and advocating against “fascism” as she welcomed MSNBC anchors Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Lawrence O’Donnell to the broadcast.

The show’s axing came amid restructuring at the network following former MSNBC President Rashida Jones’ departure and Rebecca Kutler’s take over. Reid’s show was also highly controversial following her frequent criticism of white people and focus on issues like Black Lives Matter, the Israel-Palestine conflict, immigration, and other polarizing topics.

Not a single damned one of which the stupid bint knows anything whatsoever about, mind.

The liberal host has also been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, who even celebrated her show’s cancellation and deemed her an “obnoxious racist.”

Which, of course, is perfectly true and accurate.

Reid lauded Maddow for her praise and returned her compliments by unofficially knighting her as the network’s “fearless leader.”

Wallace went a step further and even equated Reid’s departure to “losing a limb.”

“And I think that my reaction to the end of ‘The ReidOut’ and your departure is despair. And the only thing that chips away at that for me, is that despair is the autocrat’s tool. It’s their most effective weapon. It costs nothing. It’s easy to deploy, it’s contagious. And then it puts in motion all the actions they want. Hopelessness. Isolation. Exasperation. Giving up. And so the only reason I will not wallow in what I feel about you leaving is, is because I think that’s what they want,” Wallace said.

Aww, the poor widdle dear. Cwy me a river, cupcake; get it alllll out, you’ll feel a lot better. Normally, I’m not one to recommend despair to anybody as a coping mechanism, but in your case I’m willing to make an exception, just this once.

Talking sense

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JD Vance is truly a national treasure.

JD Vance to Young Men: Don’t Let Them Turn You Into ‘Androgynous Idiots’
Not too long ago, I decided to try a bold experiment. I returned to the University of Georgia to take some agriculture classes. The reason I considered it bold is that I was old enough to be many of the students’ mothers (had I been an extremely young teen mom, of course). I learned a lot of lessons about this current generation of teens and twenty-somethings and how college has changed since my first go-round two decades prior, but what really threw me was when a professor asked for my pronouns.

My class was given a virtual assignment to upload a video introduction of ourselves to a school website. “Tell us your name, your major, your hobbies and interests, and your pronouns so your classmates can gain a better understanding of who you are.” I’d never been asked to provide my pronouns in my life and had no interest in starting now. Before I uploaded my video, I watched through some of the others, shocked as these young men and women offered up their “hes” and “shes” and “theys” as if this was all perfectly normal.

But there was one guy, let’s call him Tyler, who gave us his name, his major, and his hobbies and interests, but instead of pronouns, he ended the video with “I’m a dude” and a slight eye roll, obviously mocking the pronoun situation. Let me tell you, he’s the only person from that class I even remember, much less ever gained any sort of understanding of who he was.

Well, JD Vance just gave all the other Tylers of the world permission to crawl out from under their rocks of submission and embrace their God-given masculinity.

On behalf of women — well, the ones who enjoy being women — I would like to say thank you to our vice president.

Vance spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Monday and said a lot of great things, some of which even earned him a standing ovation. But it was his message to young people, especially young men, that really stood out.

My message to young men is don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you’re competitive. The cultural message…wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same. We actually think God made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men, and as young women. And we’re going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that.

I don’t know about you, but I could listen to that over and over again. There’s a reason why Donald Trump won 49% of the vote from young men (ages 18 to 29) in November and 54% from men overall. Vance touched on that too.

I think this is why young men in particular are so, you know, they’re so inspired by President Trump is because he doesn’t allow the media to tell him he can’t make a joke or he can’t have an original thought. President Trump just says what’s on his mind; that’s a damn good thing.

Amen to that. “We’re fighting for you,” was Vance’s overall message to young people, and it was refreshing to hear. Our country doesn’t just face international enemies — we’re under attack from enemies within who want to debase and degrade our culture.

They’re the ones who want to tell young men that they can’t be masculine and tell women they can’t be feminine. They’re the ones who demand that boys play girls’ sports, who insist that teachers force gender ideology on elementary school students, and who truly believe there are 72 genders.

Well, yeah. Nice thing is, they’re all complete and total psychopaths, so we got that going for us at least.

Coolest. Gift. EVAR!

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I sure do hope Trump properly values having this guy so firmly in his corner.

Elon Musk Given “Chainsaw For Bureaucracy” By Javier Milei At CPAC
Elon Musk is no stranger to using physical props to make a point – After his purchase of social media giant Twitter, which shocked the political left to their core, he famously entered corporate headquarters on day one with a bathroom sink in his hands. “Let that sink in” became a mantra and a meme as Musk proceeded to fire around 80% of the bloated leftist company’s staff without any visible decline in operational ability.

The day Javier Milei was sworn in as president he shuttered 13 ministries and fired over 30,000 government bureaucrats. Argentina’s economy has been a train wreck for almost three decades due to socialist mismanagement and out of control debt spending. The country has been indebted to the IMF for many years and was suffering from multiple bouts of hyperinflation since 2001. Milei ran on a Libertarian platform and his campaign promise was to eliminate government waste. He went on to reduce spending by 30% and cut monthly inflation from 25% down to 2.7%.

By all accounts, Milei’s administration has been a resounding success in terms of economic reform and he has proven that Austrian economics work in practice and not just in theory. His open disdain for the political left was refreshing to see in a political candidate – Much like Trump, he has not been afraid to say what he really thinks of progressives.

After a decade of woke authoritarianism (much of it funded with American tax dollars) it’s hard to argue with anything he says here. Milei’s disdain for the political left is only matched by his disdain for big government. His favorite campaign prop was a chainsaw, representing his intent to chop the fat off the bureaucracy.

The saw blade is engraved with Milei’s catchphrase, “Viva la libertad carajo!,” which roughly translates to “Long live freedom, Goddammit!” Musk wielded the chainsaw on stage at CPAC, swinging it wildly. Thankfully the machine appeared to be inert, otherwise Musk probably would have cranked it into action and run around the stage with it.

The saw is a real beaut; best picture I’ve seen of it so far would have to be this one:

See what I mean? Thanks for all you do, Javier.

Oversight on purpose

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Somehow, for some unfathomable reason, the people responsible for the “Official portraits of Presidents and First Ladies since 1965” (no link, because fuck them) made one glaring omission, which (presumably deliberate) omission AoSHQ’s Scampydog helpfully addressed. Ladies and germs, I give you the indisputably loveliest, most stunningly beautiful First Lady not just since 65, but in US history entire.

Melania 2025.

MAN, what a dish! Class, style, looks, brains, breezy self-confidence—whatever Melania doesn’t have we don’t need, and will assuredly never miss. She’s a First Lady all Americans can be proud of, and damned well ought to be. A real headscratcher, innit, how the White House Historical Ass’n couldn’t lay their hands on the above Official Portrait no matter how hard they “tried,” but a lowly blogger-dude somehow managed it.

MAN BITES DOG!

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Well, this is a refreshing change of pace. Kinda-sorta, in a manner of speaking.

DC judge blocks bid to stop DOGE mass firings, federal data access
A federal judge rejected an emergency request from Democrat-led states Tuesday to hamper cost-cutting efforts by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Washington, DC, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied the petition by 14 Democratic states to issue a temporary restraining order against Musk and DOGE.

“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” Chutkan wrote.

“In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority. Accordingly, it cannot issue a TRO, especially one as wide-ranging as Plaintiffs request, without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm to these Plaintiffs.”

Chutkan said that the plaintiffs, led by New Mexico, had not met the “high standard for irreparable injury.”

Oh, I dunno about all that, now. Seems to me that “imminent, irreparable harm” to these scum-slurping shitlib swine is basically the entire point of the exercise. Unless and until the baglappers have been harmed irreparably, their exsanguinated carcasses cast into Outer Darkness for all time, to the last man Jack of ’em, the job won’t be well and truly done. Otherwise, it just amounts to the same tired three-card-monte scam the DC Swamp critters have been running against America That Was all along, so why even bother? Then again, could be I’m all wet about the whole sordid mess.

However it all shakes out when all’s said and done, seeing a judge—ANY judge, a DC judge, no less—step up to prevent the shitlibs from getting their way rather than providing overt assistance as usual really IS a refreshing change of pace, no two ways about it.

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About face

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Strom sees the Trumpian light. Kinda, sorta, a little bit. What the hey: baby steps, man, baby steps.

I Was Wrong About Trump
No, I am not in love with Trump. He still makes me cringe sometimes, and I still don’t understand the Canada/51st state thing at all, and want nothing to do with Gaza if he is serious about that.

He should make ALL of us cringe sometimes, and anybody who agrees with Trump’s every policy, position, and statement every single time needs to see a shrink and have his head checked. Can’t remember who first coined the phrase (Milton Friedman, maybe? Eh, dunno), but it’s right as rain: if you find yourself agreeing with anyone in the political arena 99 percent of the time, then one at least of you is almost certainly insane…and it’s probably you. True then, true now, true forever.

But there are two vital things about him which I got completely, totally, and without question wrong.

Walter Kirn slapped me in the face (not literally) with a single tweet…

Boom. At least it was a “boom” for me, because I was one of those people who was absolutely certain that Trump was too immature, too narcissistic, and too lacking in self-awareness to put his ego in check and hire the best people and support them. More than that, Trump has withstood weeks of attacks on his “ceding power” to “President Musk.”

And he has shrugged it all off and pushed his collaborators to the front, empowered them, and backed them every step along the way despite the Democrats and the Pravda Media baiting him hourly on how weak he appears.

As the Democrats and the Pravda Media scream about “President Musk,” Donald Trump invites him to give a press conference in the Oval Office with Little X running around. Trump seems so comfortable in his own skin that the richest man in the world waxing about his role in the government isn’t threatening at all; he invited it, and handed the mic over to him.

Same with Kennedy. Same with Gabbard.

I was also wrong about another issue that is perhaps even more important: his competence to take on the Deep State and win.

During his first term, I came to the conclusion that Trump didn’t understand government well enough and that by the end of his term, he hadn’t destroyed the Deep State, but rather they destroyed him. I stand by my assessment of the success of the Deep State. It hobbled him in his first term, which ended with the annus horribilis of 2020. The Deep State ran the United States in 2020, leading to Trump’s narrow defeat in the 2020 election.

As Trump himself has said several times of late, he squandered most of his first term listening to bad advice from people he believed to be his friends but were in actuality no such thing. He has learned from those mistakes, and it shows.

Believe it or not, even some normal people are scared enough about change and still trust the Democrats enough to buy the “woe is me” propaganda, but enough people are waking up that the Democrats are in a losing battle. Trump won’t win every fight, but he is wracking up a lot of wins.

I supported Ron DeSantis in the primaries because I thought Trump would have the will to fight, but not a winning strategy.

I was wrong. Trump might still be stopped, but it won’t be due to his inherent weaknesses. He is performing masterfully.

He is at that, and deserves full credit for it.

Update! Even shitlib ABC journalismist Jon Karl is forced to own up to the painful truth:


YEEEEOWTCH! You know saying that had to hurt him like a hydrochloric acid-dipped shiv to the heart.

Q: Do these people know ANYTHING AT ALL about history?

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Or do they prefer to just make it all up as they go along, in whatever willy-nilly fashion that suits them?

Never mind, probably best not to answer that one.

Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News’ Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis ‘Weaponized’ Free Speech
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan had nothing to say after Secretary of State Marco Rubio brutally countered her weak argument that the Nazis somehow “weaponized” free speech to conduct a genocide.

The “Face the Nation” exchange came Sunday morning during a discussion about Vice President JD Vance’s incredible speech in Munich, Germany on Friday, in which he roasted European leaders to their faces for their horrible positions on unchecked immigration and free speech.

The speech predictably drew howls of protest from Europeans who for the past four years were doubtless unused to being criticized by an American administration. German president Olaf Scholz called Vance’s words “not appropriate,” and German defense minister Boris Pistorius called them “unacceptable.”

Well, bless their hearts.

Bless their hearts, hell. Y’know, for people who in fact are themselves fascists, you’d think shitlib “journalismists” like Brennan would know one when they saw one without too much trouble. And yet.

Brennan interrupted Rubio with the claim that Vance was “standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide.” She then went on to criticize the vice president for meeting with Germany’s “far right” Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, despite the fact that he also met with leaders of other major German political parties. There is also the fact that Europeans consider any party that doesn’t want to invite the entire world “far right.” Even more disturbing, Brennan defended the censorship by claiming it was “specifically about the right.”

Rubio not only vehemently disagreed with the CBS anchor, but countered with facts:

“I have to disagree with you,” he responded. “Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities … There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were the sole and only party that governed that country, and so that’s not an accurate reflection of history.”

Rubio defended Vance’s point about the “erosion in free speech and intolerance for opposing points of view” in Europe.

When the secretary of state was finished, Brennan had nothing to say except that they were out of time. How convenient.

Funny how it always seems to work out sooooo conveniently for these morons, innit?

Fair winds, following seas

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Probably the smartest, bestest, most encouraging thing Trump v2.0 has done so far is to at last make good on his flamboyantly unfulfilled first-term pledge to hire “only the best people” for his administration. This, in turn, has yielded some unanticipated but nonetheless salutary results.

Trump shares the spotlight in his second term
President Donald Trump did a remarkable thing earlier this week: He let Elon Musk take reporters’ questions about the Department of Government Efficiency live from the Oval Office.

While Musk’s son ultimately stole the show, Trump sat at the Resolute Desk while his tech billionaire ally defended DOGE, a government-cutting project currently dominating the headlines, from media criticism. Though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently said she would be happy to have Musk in the briefing room, he didn’t sound like he was ready to compete for her job anytime soon.

It’s long been conventional wisdom that there is only one star of the Donald Trump Show and the only rule in his freewheeling political world is “don’t upstage the boss.” Yet the constant complaints that Musk is the shadow president or the unelected power behind the throne have not created a rift with Trump.

In the sequel to his first term, Trump has been perfectly willing to share the spotlight. Musk is a unique case. The richest man in the world and recent convert to conservatism — Musk is fond of posting videos of Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist who was many a young conservative and libertarian’s entry point to the free-market gospel — was especially helpful to Trump in last year’s presidential election. Musk and conservative activist Charlie Kirk were up against an experienced Democratic field operation and, based on the results in all seven battleground states, at least held their own.

But it isn’t just Musk. Vice President JD Vance has kept up a brisk pace of interviews since taking office. At one point during the campaign, he made more than seven times as many such appearances as both members of the Democratic ticket combined. On the night they were elected, Trump singled out Vance to praise for his performance on cable networks Republicans generally deem hostile.

Trump’s Cabinet is stocked with proven television communicators, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Attorney General Pam Bondi to newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. When Gabbard was sworn in, Trump asked the group of reporters if they had any questions. As they shouted them out, Trump said, “You know what, I’d like to have Tulsi say a few words first, and then we could answer a couple of questions.”

With a capable staff and Executive Branch appointees backing him up, all of whom he not only trusts but actually seems to like and respect personally, Trump v2.0 obviously learned all the right lessons from his first term in office—and boy, does it ever show. Small wonder, then, that the man should be more unflappable, less temperamental, and more at ease with sharing the limelight, responsibility, and credit with them, in fairly sharp contrast with his first time in the Presidential pressure-cooker. I repeat: MOST encouraging.

Steady as she goes, Mr President sir, steady as she goes. In addition to the aforementioned crew members (sober men and true/and attentive to their duty, to paraphrase WS Gilbert), maintain the heading you’re currently on and you’ll soon have nearly all Real Americans—be they lowly swabbies on their Middie cruise or salty old seadogs with more Bluewater-spray coursing through their veins than blood—solidly aboard the USS MAGA to boot.

Jumping the gun

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Trump has surely accomplished some remarkable things in his first three weeks in office, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, mmmkay? That way lies complacency, and as we all should know quite well by now, complacency is death.


Via Stephen, who quips: “Take the side of the IRS, Dems.” Heh. Indeed.

Update! See what I’m talking about?

Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump order restricting trans care for youths
President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order last month that sought to further restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for those younger than 19.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to restrict transgender health care for anyone under 19.

Judge Brendan Hurson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland was skeptical of the government’s argument that the order is not a nationwide ban on care, but rather a “general policy directive” and that the plaintiffs — who are trans teens and young adults whose care has been affected by the order — must wait to sue. 

“In this situation, it is clear that these plaintiffs have received phone calls stopping their care, stopping their appointments, stopping their everything,” Hurson said during the hearing Thursday, adding that hospitals stopped care because of the order, which also seeks to prohibit federal funding of transition-related care for minors.  

“I don’t know how you can credibly argue that this is not demanding the cessation of funding for gender affirming care,” he said.

Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project who represented the plaintiffs, said the executive order had “sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers.”

“Today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution,” Block said in a statement. “Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse.”

C’mon, man, surely you must remember the unalienable “transgender” “right” to “health care” specifically enshrined in the US Constitution, don’tcha? It’s right there in black and white for all to see, in Article…ummm, something-something, Section I forget right now, Paragraph mumble-mumble a-HENH!

Possibly the most entertaining part of the ongoing shitlib hissy-fit has been watching the frantic moonbats pretzel themselves logically in an attempt to deploy a Constitution they have long despised, denounced, and dismissed as antiquated and therefore irrelevant, so as to summon “emanations and penumbras” in support of phantasmagorical rights and freedoms that exist nowhere but in their diseased minds.

Be all that as it may, however, this is by no means the first roadblock set down before the restorative MAGA agenda by a power-drunk, overreaching “hack in black” Leftist judge, nor will it be the last. As such, although the President and his intrepid crew (SEND IN BIG BALLS!!!) are relentlessly advancing us along the road to final victory, apart from the 24 election itself we haven’t actually won a damned thing as of yet. It’s never been more crucial that we all take to heart Bedford Forrest’s sage advice to LT Morton: Get ‘em skeered, and keep the skeer on ‘em.

Updated update! Picked this one up over at WRSA a few days ago but haven’t gotten around to using it yet. In light of all of the above, there probably won’t ever be a more perfect time or place than right here, right now.

Not to be overly pessimistic or a Debbie Downer or an Eeyore or anything, but the sentiment definitely bears remembering.

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Whodunit

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Chris Bray nails it clean and tight.

Your Job Is to Push the Yes Button
the secretaries make the game clear

A gaggle of former Secretaries of the Treasury — Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew and Janet Yellen — warn in the New York Times today that the President of the United States is interfering with the operations of the executive branch. No, really. It remains entirely true that warnings about the threat to “Our Democracy” are, in fact, warnings about the threat to Our Bureaucracy.

Five people who’ve served at the top levels of the federal government can’t produce one clear and reasonable premise between them. After a bunch of throat clearing, the fourth paragraph begins the actual attempt at an argument:

The nation’s payment system has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants. In recent days, that norm has been upended, and the roles of these nonpartisan officials have been compromised by political actors from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. One has been appointed fiscal assistant secretary — a post that for the prior eight decades had been reserved exclusively for civil servants to ensure impartiality and public confidence in the handling and payment of federal funds.

The administrative state is impartial, honest, accurate, and pure. “Civil servants” are good; political people are bad. But this is how Article II begins: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Our entire system of government is premised on the authority of people who, having been elected to office, are accountable to be the people of the country for their choices. A function of government that “has historically been operated by a very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants”: not present in the Constitution. Prove otherwise, if you’d like to try. Show me the authority of that “very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants” in Article II, and tell me exactly where to find it.

Five former senior government officials, feeling themselves wonderfully virtuous, have casually upended the entire American system of government without noticing that they’ve done it. Dire warning: The President of the United States is acting like he’s in charge of the executive branch.

Shocking, innit? Matt Margolis has a meme which explains this strange phenomenon.

‘Nuff said.

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