Dostoevsky vs. Totalitarians

 Recognize Totalitarianism when you see it.  Dostoevsky did.

... We cannot have both bread and freedom, because we refuse to share. Better to forego freedom, to avoid making choices and cultivating virtue through adversity, all for an uncertain and merely free future. Better to cease to be the human created in God’s image, to give up hope of deification and union with God as true happiness.

The few who will then be the ruling elite or vanguard will be the only ones who suffer under this final arrangement, for they will know that they are deceiving the masses. “This deceit will constitute our suffering.” The masses will submit for a “quiet, humble happiness, the happiness of feeble creatures.” 

Those so ruled “will have no secrets from us. We will allow or forbid them to live with their wives and mistresses, to have or not to have children – all depending on their obedience – and they will submit to us gladly and joyfully. . . .And everyone will be happy.”

Dostoevsky was writing into the teeth of modern science and its political variant, socialism, which promised heaven on earth, a heaven whose only responsibility was obedience. These forces responded not just to the weak human inclination to find freedom burdensome, but also to the human hope for a universal material and political solution to the problems of the human condition, and to the evil that pushed Ivan to despair.

Dostoevsky knew that no such magical solution can allow us to be free without suffering....

 Read that penultimate graf again.  Again.

Now you understand the last line. 

Whose Military Secrets ARE They?

 We are *reliably* told that Israel is our "greatest ally".  

So, of course, Israel would never, ever, steal military secrets or technology from the US, right?  

And they certainly would not sell US weapons to a competitor enemy of the US, right?

Oh. 

So what does Congress do?

 

...Buried in the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” ...

Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. The U.S. and Israel already work together heavily on missile defense, but this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion.” In other words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data....

That's some scary stuff.  Doubling the number of people who can sell those secrets to an enemy is........Not Good.  Allowing foreigners to know the US' biotech and directed energy weapons planning is..........Giant Bowl of Not Good.

But let's go over this again for you dumbass America First  jerks (like Pat Buchanan) who object to this.  I will type slowly so you understand:

ISRAEL IS OUR GREATEST ALLY.  So SHUT UP.

Just ask Ted Cruz, or Mark Levin, or Lindseeeeeeeeeeeey!

Or anyone else in the Amen Corner of Congress. 

The Usual "News" From Fox6

There is a lot of information on the Epstein files matter which is easily available on the 'net.  So when Heather Miller of Fox6 runs a story on the Epstein controversy, one would think that Heather Miller would not hold back germane material.

One would be wrong.  Ms. Miller follows the Lefty-Journo bible:  never the whole story.

In a piece which re-hashes a lot of "maybe" and "we don't know" designed to keep the pot boiling, we find this:

... Among those files is a series of FBI interviews with a woman who claims Trump sexually and physically assaulted her when she was between 13 and 15 years old....

What did Heather Miller not mention?  The allegations were made by a woman with an extensive criminal history; it was Biden's FBI and DOJ which refused to act on them due to credibility problems. 

Oh, well. 

The Problem With Trump-Oil

The Donald pounds the drum:  'The US is the leading producer of petroleum in the world.'

Leave aside that that statement is a half-truth.

The petroleum produced in the US is useless for US purposes.

 ..

.the US is not, contrary to Trump’s claims, energy independent when it comes to oil. US shale production is overwhelmingly light sweet crude (low density, low sulfur). However, America’s refinery infrastructure — particularly the massive Gulf Coast refining complex — was built and optimized decades ago to process heavy sour crude. Because of this, the US must import heavy crude from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and others to feed existing refineries, while it exports its light shale oil to Asia and Europe.

The US is dependent on heavy sour crude because of the central role of diesel in the US economy. The US economy runs heavily on diesel, which is best produced from heavy crude… Trucks, trains, farm equipment, construction machinery, and home heating oil in the Northeast all depend on distillate fuels produced from heavy crude. Since US shale doesn’t yield enough heavy fractions to meet domestic diesel demand, our economy is structurally vulnerable to a disruption imports remain structurally necessary regardless of how much light crude is produced....

THAT is why Venezuela.  Venezuela has the heavy sour the US needs 

Reality on Trump's "Mail-In Ballot" Order

Since the usual suspects--Democrats and their paid prevaricators-lawyers--are lying about Trump's EO concerning mail-in ballots, let's look at the facts, shall we?

...If implemented, Trump’s directive would result in a federal database of US citizens by state who are eligible to vote....

Eligibility would be determined by a combination of Social Security, IRS, DMV, and other OFFICIAL  records for each State; each State would have to submit a list of eligible voters to the Feds 60 days in advance of an election, and ONLY those who are 'eligible' will get mailed ballots.

The EO has provisions for correcting errors, by the way.

There is more useful info at the above link. 

America First Trade Policy

You can call it "MAGA" or you can call it "America First."  Either way, it's good to see common sense coming from Washington for a change.

 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday delivered the Trump administration’s most sweeping statement yet of its economic-security doctrine, arguing that decades of bipartisan trade policy left the United States strategically dependent on foreign rivals and that the administration’s tariffs, industrial policies, and supply-chain measures are not a break with American tradition but an attempt to recover it....

Shades of Patrick J. Buchanan!!

 ...“A nation that cannot manufacture, mine, ship, or refine its needs gradually cedes its strength — and sovereignty — to others,” Bessent said. “That is a dangerous dependency for any country. It is an unacceptable one for the United States.”...

 ...“We measured abundance at the checkout counter rather than the factory gate,” he said. “We talked about GDP, but not enough about its composition.”...

That was the Libertarian line for decades:  "You may not have a job any more, but it's OK because you can buy cheap stuff at Wal-Mart, see??"

 ...Bessent traced what he described as a series of compounding errors: the decision to treat trade policy as separate from national strategy; the extension of strategic trust to China through WTO accession and permanent normal trade relations; and the embrace of just-in-time supply chains that the pandemic exposed as brittle. The failures, he argued, were not accidental but philosophical — the product of a political class that had “preferred the comfort of old formulas.”

“The warning lights were glaring all around us,” he said. “Cheaper was always better. Offshoring was inevitable. Industrial policy was unfashionable. And strategic dependence was acceptable so long as the cost remained invisible.”...

"Cheaper is always better."  Solid NOPE.  Those cheaper basement dehumidifiers, or--for that matter--household refrigerators, no longer work for decades.  They might not work for 5 years.  Is that an improvement, really?

We strongly disapprove of the War for Israel.  We think Trump's self-aggrandizement is tasteless at best, or obnoxious at worst.  But on election integrity, the removal of illegals, and economic/trade policy, he could not be better for the USA.

Should those reforms be totally implemented, it will be the shining monument he wants. 

 

More 'Government-Kills-People' Vaccine Stories

We have often compared Fauci to Mengele--although Mengele was far more forthright with the truth than was Fauci.

But it ain't only Fauci.

...Government researchers enrolled extremely vulnerable infants in an experimental RSV trial, did not obtain informed consent, continued dosing even as severe cases emerged, and two children died. Nobody was prosecuted or even fired. This is serious iatrogenic harm (injury caused by medical treatment) and a research‑ethics failure on its face, full stop. ...

That was Nat'l Institutes for Health's first attempt at an RSV vax.

Took them 58 years to fix that little problem. 

Bongino Will Explain, No Doubt.....

Dan Bongino famously joined the FBI as a high-ranking guy, and famously left after less than 2 years' service.

Since then, he has had nothing to say about the FBI's horrible record of deception and malicious prosecutions--nor about the FBI's dismal crime-fighting under the watchful eye of AutoPen.

Nothing to say.

 ...Day after day; night after night, in most major metropolitan areas around the nation, the group known as “Antifa” operate with impunity.  They are organized; they are funded; they communicate locally, regionally and nationally.  They mobilize in designated and coordinated areas of operation, and they are exceptionally violent and dangerous.

So how is it they can operate?

They build encampments outside federal facilities and openly fight with federal officials and law enforcement.  Yet, nothing is done.  Why not?

If the FBI did not support Antifa, quite simply Antifa would not exist.  They are right there, highly visible, doing illegal things on camera, repeatedly, all over the country, and the FBI doesn’t lift a finger to stop them.  Why?

The only thing that makes sense is that the FBI wants this activity to take place....

 Well, it's a theory, proposed by Nick Sortor.

Surely Bongino will explain this, no?

No?

Hello???!!! 

Israel to Shove 2 Million Out of Homes

 Trump certainly has strange "friends."

 During a Thursday interview, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is making a concerted effort to take even more land in Gaza. “We are now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. We were at 50%. We moved to 60%,” he said. “My directive is to move to — take it step by step — first of all 70. Let’s start with that.” 

 

The move would force two million Palestinians out of the territory. The defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that the goal is to force Palestinians to leave Gaza by what he called “voluntary migration.” Human rights activists ask how it’s “voluntary” if the whole point is to make Palestinian life so unbearable that they have no choice but to leave the region. ...

 

That means that there will be plenty of Low-Income Housing available for Americans. 

VERY Hard Deadline on Iran Settlement

 The Donald stepped into a war and seemingly can't step out.

That will be a disaster for the US, the world, and Trump.

 ExxonMobil warned Thursday that oil inventories will fall to record low levels in coming weeks, forcing prices to spike and curbing demand.

“We’re approaching unheard of inventory levels,” said Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman at a conference hosted by Bernstein in New York.

“I mean really, really low levels,” Chapman warned. “You can debate whether that’s going to hit, those really low levels, in two weeks or three weeks. Once you get to that point, then you’ll see price shoot up.”

The price of physical Brent oil cargoes will spike to $150 to $160 per barrel when inventories hit all-time lows in coming weeks, the executive said....

So--gasoline at about $6.50/gal and diesel at $9.00 or so?

Lovely. 

For some reason, you won't hear about that warning from Levin, Graham, or Huckabee. 

"Truth-In-Grants" Will Expose the Networks

Trump's IRS has a new rule.

Non-profits (NGO's) receive taxpayer money called "grants."  Then those NGO's further distribute the money--but don't have to report who gets the money.

That's going to change.

 [Bessent]:  "The IRS is now giving guidance on the Form 990, which nonprofits they have to file. We are going to demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients."

And taxpayers will know, too!

Originally designed to find out where ANTIFA got its funding--there is a helluvalot of money going to them--it will also be very useful for other discoveries, as Ace mentions.

 ...The grant-subgrant system is set up to disguise Democrat money-laundering. Terrorists have members called "cleanskins" -- terrorists who have no known criminal record or association with terrorists. These "clean skins" are used to infiltrate organizations and pull levers in favor of terrorists.

(Note a "cleanskin" can also refer to an undercover cop who has no publicly-known association with cops, so he can be infiltrated into a criminal group.)

Likewise, Democrats have "cleanskin" NGOs that they can pour US taxpayer money into. And then these "clean" NGOs donate to dirty NGOs and straight up terrorist organizations -- or Chinese covid labs adding furin cleavage sites to viruses.

The Grantee/Subgrantee system is designed precisely so that Democrats can divert taxpayer money to illegal/antiamerican/pure Democrat pillager groups. They money is given to the "clean skin" NGOs, who then immediately send the money off to where it was always intended to go, the "dirty skin" groups....

Yes, well........it will be very interesting to see what "sub-grants" are made by the USCC, no? 

Trump WILL Tighten Mail-in Vote Rules

 No wonder Tony Evers decided to quit.

Mail-in voting rules are going to change--for the better--under Trump's EO.

 As part of the Trump administration’s March 31, 2026 “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” Executive Order (EO), the federal government is required to create and send a “state citizenship list” to each state.1 To create the “state citizenship list,” the order requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S Social Security Administration (SSA) to work together to compile before each federal election a list of individuals who are:  confirmed US citizens; are 18 years of age or older; and who maintain a residence in that State....

 ...The order requires DHS to assemble the “state citizenship list” no fewer than 60 days before regularly scheduled or special federal elections. The list is supposed to be assembled from federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, data from the DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, and “other relevant” federal databases. The order also states that DHS will establish a process to allow people to access their individual records and update or correct their records in advance of elections, and will enable states to routinely supplement and provide suggested modifications or amendments to the list that is transmitted....

(The above quote is from a PDF two-column format.  If it posts kinda wonky, well.....)

Naturally, the Usual Suspects sued, hoping to invalidate the order.  The judge said "Nope.  No one has been harmed, and there are processes in the order which allow for corrections.  Expect an appeal, of course.

See, the Democrats are very concerned about voter-lists which are ACCURATE.  They may lose half (or more) of their "voters"...... 

HT:  AOSHQ 

$40 Million in Gold. Conspiracy?

Some rando joined the CIA in "Senior Executive Status" (not a grunt) and ripped off $40 million in gold bars, plus a crap-ton of cash dollars.  Stashed the stuff in his garage, just like Joe Biden.

Ex-CIA officer David Rush’s alleged years-long scheme that netted him $40 million in gold bars and a top-secret security clearance has those in the Clandestine Service community questioning how he slipped through the fastidious vetting process — and who else may be flying under the radar.

Former CIA staff operations officer Tracy Walder was baffled over the stunning allegations against Rush and believes they could point to a much more troubling issue within the agency.

“This would have been a large-scale lying cover-up. There would have had to be a lot of other co-conspirators,” Walder told The Post....

The perp invented most of his resume and--obviously--invented the "reasons" he needed all that gold and cash.

What you NEED TO KNOW:

He was hired during the Obama Regime, and Leon Panetta was Director.

Just co-incidence, ya'know. 

 

Adelson's Strange New Friend

Miriam Adelson is known for funding Trump's campaigns and for her 100% Zionist activities.

But Trump is not her only political pal.

 ...Texas Democrat James Talarico has built a national profile railing against GOP billionaires in politics — but has quietly accepted funds from a PAC backed by one of the wealthiest donors in the Republican Party.

The single biggest donor to Talarico’s state House reelection bid last year was a group funded by casino mogul Miriam Adelson, according to state campaign finance data....

Think TalaFreako will suit up and go fight for Israel?

We don't.  But he will certainly VOTE that way if elected. 

Meredith Hackler, a Hack

At one time, a news story was not the same as an editorial.

Not for Meredith Hackler!

Here is the top graf to set the stage for Hackler's crap:

 ...The state's top Senate Democrat, Dianne Hesselbein, has filed legislation that would fully tax any money that could go to people who took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection....

(Should anyone tell Hesselbein about "Bills of Attainder", outlawed in the US Constitution?)

Anyhow.

...Congressman and Republican candidate for Governor Tom Tiffany was asked about this topic earlier this week. He seemed to be open to the idea of paying money to people who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, although he did admit he would need more information on who would qualify.  ...

Sorry, sweetcheeks:  J6 was NOT an "insurrection."  There was no revolt against Government. 

It wasn't even a proper riot as there were no fires set, nor massive looting.

You wanna write editorials, Meredith?  Start a blog or drool on X.  Don't peddle your drivel as "news." 

Morals Disappearing in USA

Interesting polling question here.

  A new survey reveals that Americans’ views on the overall state of moral values in the U.S. have worsened over the past year, with negative assessments of current conditions and the direction that values are headed both rising sharply....

... according to the poll, a record-high 56% of Americans rated moral values in the U.S. as "poor" this year, up 12 percentage points from last year....

Below we note that Milwaukee Public Schools will have special teams dedicated to trans-kids and racially-segregated 'improvement' groups.  Maybe MPS should have a special team dedicated to morals.

To quote the great Patrick J. Buchanan (in the early '90's):

In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs Americans have held for generations.

And that's only on the floor of the US Congress.

What MPS Students Need

 New budget for MPS, $1.6 billion or so.

Addressed real needs, not fluff or stupid stuff, right?

... MPS said the budget funds a dedicated team focused on Black and Latino Male Achievement, Gender Identity and Inclusion, and Positive Behavior and Restorative Practices....

Maybe you saw "dedicated teams" to increase reading and math scores to >30% passing.

We don't. 

Separating Zelenskiy From Westerners

Putin's government directly warned VP Vance that Americans should evacuate from Kiev ASAP.  That followed a targeted missile strike on the city, using an Oreshnik and several other less-speedy missiles.

The Duran comments:

... Getting the Western Powers to pull their embassies and personnel out of Kyiv is probably for the Russians an objective in itself. The Russian calculus probably is that Zelensky and the other key institutions of Ukraine would be very unwilling to leave Kyiv....

 ...if Zelensky were to stay in Kyiv after the Westerners left, he would become isolated from the West. The reality, as anyone who follows the situation in Kiev at all closely can see, is that Westerners (the diplomats, the personnel of the Western funded NGOs, the military advisers fulfilling advice and liaison functions, the officials who administer the aid packages etc) today form a key part of Ukraine’s system of government. Severing the link between this structure and Zelensky would inevitably weaken the system as a whole.

Lastly, if travel in and out of Kyiv becomes dangerous, with the Russians able to threaten the railway and road links (not impossible) then Zelensky’s isolation from the West and the outside world were he to choose to stay in Kiev after the Westerners left would become greater still....

Other than certain Deep State entities such as the CIA, the Biden Crime Family, and the now-totally-discredited "health" agencies of the FedGov, few in D.C. like Zelenskiy.  Putin will make that permanent if he can.

Good for him! 

Another Look at "AI"

Found this at the Meaning site, which also publishes a coherent counter-Trumpian narrative on the Misbegotten Israeli War on Iran.  Naturally, what you'll see here and his commentaries on the Israeli War run directly counter to the propaganda drooled forth by the local RadioMouths on WISN,.  So it's worthwhile to check in now and then.

Here he quotes @alex_prompter: 

 Let me trace the timeline here because nobody’s connecting it.

Step 1: Scrape the entire internet. Every book, every article, every conversation, every piece of art, every forum post. Do it without asking. Do it without paying.

Step 2: Train a model on all of it. Call it “artificial intelligence.”

Step 3: Go to BlackRock’s Infrastructure Summit and announce: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Step 3 is where you sell people’s own knowledge back to them. On a meter.

They took the collective output of human thought, compressed it into a model, and now they want to charge you by the token to access a version of what you and everyone you know already created.

One Reddit user put it perfectly: “They stole all this data from us, the people, our life’s work, creativity, art, by devouring the internet and blowing through all copyright laws. Now they want to sell it back to us in the form of a utility.”

Imagine if someone photocopied every book in the public library, burned the library down, and then opened a subscription service for the copies.

That’s the metered intelligence business model.

And they’re pitching it to infrastructure investors as though they invented water.

Never thought of it that way, didja?

But then, you're not forced to pay for your own works--yet. 

Fun With Anne Coulter

Coulter can be a lot of fun to read.  She recently joined up with The American Conservative (a PJB-founded outfit) and is now writing columns for them.

She has a take-no-prisoners approach which is going to draw fire from the Trumpians.

 Other than President Donald Trump supposedly finally ending his Iran War with a beautiful deal—a tremendous deal, an incredible deal, and could everyone please tell him that?—the president’s only other helpful move this quarter was to endorse Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his successful runoff against the incumbent Sen. John Cornyn....

See what I mean?  She also has words for Stephen Miller.

 ...Just a week ago, Miller unleashed a barrage of abuse at Rep. Thomas Massie for voting against Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill because, as Massie explained, it also fully funded the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, used by the Biden administration to spy on and censor Americans.

I, personally, would vote for an entire KGB to spy on Americans in exchange for a wall, but opposing the non-wall part of a bill that also funded the wall does not constitute siding with “foreign predators and criminal aliens,” as Miller claimed in one of his histrionic tweets....

Turns out that Miller is a jerk who back-stabbed Jeff Sessions in order to get himself a job with Trump.  But Miller is not the only Member in Good Standing of the D.C. Backstabbers' Club.  Nicolle Wallace is another, and  Coulter has a few words for her, too:

 ...Wallace, you will recall, was part of the brain trust that picked Sarah Palin, then a little-known Alaska governor, to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate. As Palin’s primary assistant, Wallace immediately began leaking nasty stories about her to the press, calling her a “diva” and carping about her shopping sprees. As soon as Wallace failed at the job of getting her clients elected, she rushed to the New York Times to announce that she hadn’t voted for them, anyway....

... That reinvention set up Wallace perfectly for a host role on MSNBC, where, as a “former Republican,” she says things too crazy for a Democrat to voice. Like the girl who does the whole football team, she will do anything, say anything, to stay on TV—before being discarded. If David Duke bought MS-NOW and announced, “We’re going white nationalist,” she’d hand him her resume....

Imagine that.  Snakes and Rats. In your very own Big Government.  Almost as though the Declaration has to be revived and that 1776 thing has to be re-lived or sumpin'sumpin'.

 

Trump Bunch Going Statist

Trump's New York City state of mind is becoming a hazard to civil rights.

... The Trump [is] urging the Supreme Court to reject a petition by New York healthcare workers who were fired for spurning COVID-19 vaccination on religious grounds, arguing the state mandate didn't violate federal law....

... [T]he Department of Justice's friend-of-the-court brief emphasizes the distinction between "exemption" and "accommodation" for the purposes of recognizing employees' religious rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act....

 ...Representing five lead plaintiffs and another 1,500 who were fired after submitting religious accommodation requests, Liberty Counsel filed a supplemental brief days after DOJ's that accused the government of "fundamental errors" regarding the importance of the case and its facts, dismissing the department's focus on "terminology" as irrelevant to Title VII.

Vaccine injury lawyer Aaron Siri mocked the government's brief as "a word salad of nonsense," tagging President Trump's personal X account Tuesday to accuse his administration of "betraying religious liberty by arguing it is perfectly fine for employers to have policies that allow medical but not religious exemptions to vaccination requirements."...

Frankly, this is not surprising.  Trump is--at heart--a Big Government guy.  His appeal (MAGA) was based on making the Big Government cost-effective, a goal which cannot and will not be realized.  That's why he spends money like it's water.  The remaining elements of his policy--ejecting illegals and going after blatant frauds--are low-hanging fruits.  Dismantling the Deep State?  Never going to happen.

In the case above, he's showing his tendency to typical Democrat positions. 

Statism is the natural consequence of his policy 

What's Next in Education? More and Worse

Oh, man.  Another "enhancement" of Pubblik Screwels.

 The idea of so-called community schools dates back to the early 20th-century Progressive Era. This plan turns schools into one-stop shops for families and is accompanied by so-called wraparound services staffed by—typically unionized—government workers....

...U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), along with U.S. Representative Susie Lee (D-NV), have just introduced the Full-Service Community School Expansion Act. The bill aims to provide essential resources for school districts nationwide to plan, implement, expand, and support full-service community schools, including “medical, mental, and nutritional health services, mentoring and youth development programs, technical assistance, and continuing education courses for students and families.” ...

Leaving not much at all for actual parents to do, except to provide subjects for union-member employment opportunities.

And--of course--to even more completely govern the education indoctrination of the children. 

More Good Election News!

 Reported by Childers:

 ....On Tuesday, at least five Squad-aligned candidates in Illinois Democrat congressional primaries were defeated by moderates. Some of them did not merely lose, but were crushed beyond recognition. And even though most of them had unpronounceable, vaguely Middle-Eastern or African surnames, and I am not making this up, like Kat Abughazaleh (literally, “Bug Zapper”).

Axios, which is a news organization that covers politics with the breathless urgency of someone who has drunk one too many espressos, described the result as “a virtually total collapse.” It also noted, shifting to the grave tone of a doctor delivering a terminal diagnosis, that this is “a bad sign for the dozens of insurgent Democrats running in congressional races across the country.”...

Francesca Hong will be a victim, although the "Chaos" game may rescue her.

Heh. 

SSCI Regnant Again?

Most of you know that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) is the center-post of the Deep State.  Marco Rubio was a member of that committee, and you don't get there without a very thorough vetting.  The House has a similar group; together, those groups are "The Gang of Eight."  (McCain was a member, if you need horrific memories.)

Most of you also know that Tulsi Gabbard--decidedly NOT a Deep State member--is leaving her post as Director, National Intelligence after having enacted the beginning of a house-cleaning in all the intel agencies.

So read this carefully.

 ...State Department Counselor Michael Needham, a longtime confidant and aide to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will now be the assistant to President Trump and deputy national security adviser.

Mike Needham will serve along with Rubio, who, in addition to being Secretary of State is also President Trump’s National Security Advisor.  The National Security Advisor runs the White House National Security Council....

And:

 ...the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), that would be Tulsi Gabbard, serves as the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community and also acts as the principal advisor to: the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council, for all intelligence matters related to national security.

Deputy National Security Advisor Mike Needham will now assist in running the National Security Council while Marco Rubio remains in his dual role as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.  Needham was chief of staff to Rubio in the U.S. Senate during Rubio’s tenure as Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and a Gang of Eight member....

Be prepared. 

"Megatron" Is Wrong-a-Tron

 We find "Megatron" proclaiming that credit-card default is at 15-year high.

We find Wolf Street has other numbers.

 ...During the Free-Money era, credit card delinquency rates had dropped to record super-low levels. But when the free money ended, delinquency rates rose out of that trough, and overshot a little but still remained relatively moderate within the 25-year context of the data. And then, two years ago, the free-money hangover started to get worked off, and delinquency rates started declining again, and the trend has continued.

The 30-plus days delinquency rate on credit cards issued by all commercial banks declined to 2.92% in Q1, seasonally adjusted (SA, red in the chart), the lowest since Q2 2023, and down from 3.06% a year ago, and from 3.17% two years ago, according to the Federal Reserve, based on regulatory reports filed by all commercial banks. This includes credit cards by subprime-rated cardholders.

The 60-plus days delinquency rate by all credit cards, including private label credit cards (such as store cards), and subprime credit cards, declined to 2.97%, not seasonally adjusted, at the end of Q1, down from 3.09% a year ago, and down from 3.12% two years ago, according to Equifax...

 

You decide. 

Trump's Index Is Not Smart

We often hear Trump yap about "the stock market" being up, so all is good.

"Good" for whom?

... In 1960, a person could buy 96 shares of the S&P 500 with a median household income. In 1990, he could buy 89 shares. In 2010, only 43 shares. How many shares could one buy today with the median household income? Only 16....

Trump is playing to what remains of his supporters:  the superannuated Hannity-watchers.

By definition, they're not a long-lasting bunch.  So does he expect a lengthy legacy in the House and Senate (R) numbers, or what?

For The Fallen

 The In Paradisum from the Durufle Requiem.

Question for the "Devout Catholic"

 

Israel Is NOT Happy

Netanyahu has not said a word, so how do we know that he is unhappy with this "deal"?

Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and the sidewalk gum spot Mark Levin are Screaming Mimi's about it.

When both of Israel's Senators are opposed, you can bet that Netanyahu is opposed.

Who Lost in Iran Deal?

It was reported that Netanyahu was "hair on fire" after a convo with Trump a few days ago.

From an Israeli reporter, we learn why.

... For a leader who has spent decades building his brand as the sole guarantor of Israeli security, accepting a deal that leaves the regime intact, Hezbollah armed, the ballistic missile program recovering, and Tehran flush with sanctions relief is electoral assisted suicide for Netanyahu. Hanging in the balance of these negotiations is the fate of more than one regime. 

But even Liiiiiiiiinnnnnnnndseeeeeeeey! is mostly happy with the deal as rumored.  (The actualities remain shrouded.)

So maybe Benji will be deposed and put on trial.  And maybe that will shed a lot of light on the yet-to-be-released Epstein files

Huh. 

More, from an ex-spook who was literally 'on the ground' in Middle East assignments:

 ...Equally important is the rapidly consolidating regional opposition to renewed American military escalation. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Pakistan have reportedly all conveyed direct warnings against renewed kinetic action. Their fear is not ideological sympathy toward Tehran, but the possibility of uncontrollable regional destabilization involving Gulf infrastructure, energy systems, shipping lanes, desalination facilities, and global oil markets.

At the same time, Iran is no longer operating from the weakened military position it occupied earlier this year. Iranian missile infrastructure has been substantially reconstituted. Naval capabilities have been dispersed and hardened. Command structures have stabilized under IRGC leadership. Current assessments indicate Tehran retains approximately 70% of its missile capability and has restored operational functionality to roughly 30 of its 33 strategic missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz....

So the Saudis, Qataris, and Emirates kinda want to keep their fresh-water supplies and functioning petroleum infrastructure.  Who could have guessed??

FINALLY!! An EV Road Tax

Electric vehicles (EVs) weigh a lot more than their internal-combustion comparables and obviously, they pay no gasoline tax.

So if you drive an internal-combustion car, you are paying the taxes that EV owners ought to pay.  And Congress finally caught up with that.

The bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill, passed out of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Friday.

The 1,000-page legislation makes the largest federal investment in bridges and provides new revenue for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund for the first time in more than 30 years. The HTF funds the maintenance, repair and building of U.S. highways and mass transit systems....

 ...It also directs the Federal Highway Administration to require all states to collect an annual registration fee of $130 for electric vehicles and $35 for plug-in hybrid vehicles, with the fees increasing to a respective maximum of $150 and $50 in later years.

The fees are meant to replace the gas taxes that EV owners do not pay, as well as address the increased wear and tear EVs inflict on roadways. Depending on energy capacity, the battery within an EV can weigh anywhere from 300 to 3,000 pounds, according to ACE Battery....

If you are on nearly ANY social-media, you will have seen the screeching from anti-tax groups; put correctly, the screeching comes from the EV/Hybrid lobbies pushing through the "anti-tax" bunch.

Tax 'em.  Then fix the damn roads. 

 

A Mere 61 Cents?

 California has a total of 61 cents/gallon in taxes and fees for gasoline.

Highest in the country.

But not to worry!  When Ms Hong, or Mr. Crowley, gets to be the Governor of Wisconsin, it'll be "Hold Muh Beer!!!"

Crowley is good at raising taxes, then claiming that he can balance a budget.

Hong is clueless. 

"Affordability" Problems??

Gee.

Da Yout's tell us they have "affordability" problems, which are the fault of the Boomers.  See this post from Ace about that and many other Yout' problems.

Perhaps the problem is........well........"Delivered Food"  .check this:

  

Another (R) Waste of Money

There are good reasons to despise the Republican Party.

One is their vote FOR building a "Women's History" museum in D.C.

Shamefully, every single Wisconsin Republican voted for this massive--duplicatative, wasteful--expenditure of tax money.

Every.  Damn.  One. 

Every time the Democrats come up with an utterly inane (or worse) idea, the Republicans response is "Well, that's not good, but can we give you a lot of Other People's Money to make you happy?"

Jackasses. 

RFKjr Needs Bodyguards. Many of Them.

Fascinating insider account of the FDA/HHS/CDC wars which recently killed off Marty Makary, Tracy Beth Hoeg, and Hillary Perkins and will likely kill off RFKjr.  ("Killed" is metaphorical--so far.)

Excerpt anent Makary:

 

...Just peruse the almost dozen op-eds in the Wall Street Journal since last Fall, haranguing Marty for not approving a drug by Replimune that has unreliable data coming out of its flawed trials - you can see the strategy at work (three independent scientific teams at the FDA recommended against approval. Marty defended the scientists). Scan the political trade press daily and you’ll see chatter about the constant whining from the industry to the White House office established to placate aggrieved donors. Or the disgruntled former FDA employees serving as sources for every media hit, even though what they perceived as draconian DOGE layoffs happened before Marty took office. The rare-disease patient groups, being told by Pharma about how the FDA is delaying their new wonder-drug that could cure Huntington’s disease (even though the actual study methodology was at best controversial), ginned up anti-FDA grievance on social media and to the White House office established to placate aggrieved stakeholder groups (yes, there’s a relationship-babysitter WH office for everything)....

If you are reminded of the sudden exit of Tulsi Gabbard, you are not alone.

And this, wherein the author admits to some prejudice:

 ...But I have checked in with Marty pretty regularly during his year and a half journey, and over that time, watched him go from sounding enthusiastic and hopeful during the pre-confirmation process to frustrated and disappointed by government corruption. The let-down has been palpable over not being able to fully reverse the agency capture and put the public back in public health.

I know that people who know us both are saying I only see the best side of Marty. That’s true - I do. But I’ve loved him like a brother since we were both bright-eyed kids and it has pained me to watch the dream for Making America Healthy Again that we both shared for so long cut brutally short....

But before you say "AHA!!!  A tongue-bather!!!"  read the rest of the essay--or at least the first 10 grafs.

Then pray for the country. 

Educators Are NOT Your Friends

 You have heard from the TeeeVeee that '60 Organizations' have demanded that Children's Hospital and the UW Hospitals resume transgender butchery.

The TeeeeVeeeee was very careful to NOT mention the names of those organizations.

So we looked around.

Aside from the obvious ones--the LBGTQ+,-XYZSJ groups, the "coalition" consists largely of Public Education lobbyists and organizations and--no surprise--are concentrated in the Madistan area.

Which raises the obvious question:  why the Hell are teachers so damned interested in mutilation of children?

Something you should ask next time you have a teacher-conference at school. 

This Problem Can Be Solved

Nasty story here.

 

A 50 year-old Florida woman was viciously mauled to death by a pair of bloodthirsty pit bulls, only to be found by her heartbroken husband who said he’ll “never get the image out of my mind.”...

 ...“She just loved people, loved dogs more than people, and for her to go out that way, it’s not right,’ Smith said.

A neighbor’s surveillance footage captured Cowan walking down Blue Bonnet Drive carrying her small dog just moments before she was chased and horrifically attacked by the dogs, FOX35 reported....

The mutts built a reputation.

 

...Neighbors told FOX35 that the pit bulls were frequently left outside and had previously attacked passersby.

One resident said they had been previously trapped in their vehicle for 30 minutes while the duo surrounded their vehicle. Another neighbor recently called animal control with concerns and even bought pepper spray for protection....

Pepper spray is..........close..........to the resolution.

A .45 fat-boy IS the resolution, assuming good trigger control. So is a double-tap 9mm.

Another Block to H1-Bs--and Others

Bet you didn't know about "AOS".

 ...On Friday, officials announced that migrants in the United States who want to use the little-recognized and fast-track “Adjustment of Status” (AOS) pathway to green cards — and then citizenship — must instead follow the normal legalization pathway that goes through the U.S. embassies in their home countries.

This change will impact millions of economic migrants in the United States — including long-resident illegal migrants, temporary foreign workers, tourists, students, people with parole visas, Biden-era illegals with Temporary Protective Status, people who overstay their visas, and even people who have been given a final order of deportation. It does not impact refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants living overseas....

"AOS" was the game played by Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Bai-Den to short-circuit the legal immigration process.  

 

Judge David Borowski Sprays Chaff

 Here's the background:

A Milwaukee judge [David Borowski] wants to hold bars and bartenders accountable for overserving drunk drivers.

The comments came at a sentencing hearing for a man who killed a Franklin man two years ago....

So it's the "bars and bartenders", eh?

Actually, it's the Democrats such as the Biden Administration.

 ...Molina-Rios, as a undocumented convicted felon is facing deportation once he completes his sentence. Molina-Rios will be subject to be deported to Mexico.

Molina-Rios is well known in the Milwaukee Latino community for being a popular Spanish Speaking radio personality and a former member of the Wisconsin Brown Berets....

Borowski is not ignorant of this guy's background and status.  But instead of making it clear that the Biden Administration failed to deport a man with a troubling history, he chose to throw some chaff into the air to deflect from the real problem:  Democrat malfeasance on illegals.

 

Adam Reif also chose NOT to tell his audience about Molina-Rios' status as an illegal.  Another loyal Democrat. 

 

That "Brown Beret" group that Molina-Rios belonged to?

 

 The Brown Berets (Spanish: Los Boinas Cafés [los ˈβojnas kaˈfes]) is a Chicano paramilitary organization that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the United States during the late 1960s.^[2][3] David Sanchez and Carlos Montes co-founded the group modeled after the Black Panther Party.^[4][5] The Brown Berets was part of the Third World Liberation Front. It worked for educational reform, farmworkers' rights, and against police brutality and the Vietnam War.^[6] It also sought to separate the American Southwest from the control of the United States government.^[7]...

^{What the Hell was Borowski THINKING???} 

 

 

 

Crowley, a Child of Privilege

Some people are more equal than others.

 Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will throw out the first pitch on Friday, as the Brewers host the L.A. Dodgers. His campaign planned a tailgate before the event, even though Brewers’ rules prohibit campaigning on the grounds....

Sure.

So can Hong do that?  Barnes?  Hughes?

Tiffany is not a scofflaw.  He won't be doing one. 

Grim Points and Laughs

If the US Department of Education is this stupid, imagine how bad your State's Dep't/Ed actually is.

The Weekend's Discussion Piece

 Davidson at The Federalist presents a fiery essay about Americans.  It is a re-run of what Pat Buchanan proposed, by the way.  Here's the core:

... But of course one need not be an ethno-nationalist to reject the creedalists’ claims about American identity. Indeed, those claims can be rejected on the basis of religion alone. At the very heart of American identity, after all, lies the Christian religion and the principles of government derived from its theological precepts. Put another way, if America is a “propositional nation,” as they say, then the proposition is Christianity and all that it entails. You cannot have, as the basis of nation, the assertion that “all men are created equal,” that all men are given unalienable rights by their Creator, without Christian theological claims undergirding those assertions. That doesn’t mean every American has to be Christian, as if we’re some kind of theocracy. But it does mean that every American has to endorse a Christian theological cosmology.

The point about religion is that America is not an Enlightenment-era parlor game. It is a people who came from a particular culture and religion, British and Christian. Its creed is universal in the same way the Christian creed is universal: it is open to everyone willing to convert, change their life, and be transformed. That’s what assimilation really means. The immigrant must leave behind the cultural practices of his homeland and adopt American culture and habits as his own — above all, he must adopt the Christian idea that all men are created equal, with all the implications that flow from that. That is harder to do than it seems, and it doesn’t happen at all under conditions of mass immigration....

That has consequences.

 ...Not everyone who emigrates here will become an American. Ilhan Omar, for example, will probably never become an American, no matter how long she lives here. That’s because being an American doesn’t mean just being physically present in the United States, with all your documents in order, in hopes of making a lot of money or amassing a lot of power. It means joining, and being adopted into, an existing people — a people with a shared past and a common future and a distinct heritage and cultural patrimony.

Most foreigners, if they fully understood what it meant, would not even want to assimilate. People after all tend to love their own cultures and ancestral homelands, and they generally do not want to leave them behind for another. That’s why so many immigrants today fail to assimilate, or don’t even try....

His main thesis?

...That’s also why, in 2026, it’s worth asking whether we should keep allowing them to hold high federal office. ...

By the way, the claptrap (adopted by Gorsuch, who should know better) that America was originally a "land of immigrants" was demolished in the essay.

Hmmmm.   

Ron Johnson's Moral Dilemma

 Imagine being RoJo.

Your "leader" is pompous asshoe and the President lies to your face, telling you Iran will nuke the USA.

But if you walk out in protest, you will likely be the cause of the (D) Statist takeover.

Hmmmmm. 

Trump = Epstein Class. Sad.

Looks like Trump's friends are Very Special.

 ...Trevor Milton. Convicted of defrauding investors, Milton was granted a full pardon and excused from potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution payments after he donated $2.5 million to the Trump campaign and associated PACs.

Then there’s Paul Walczak, who was convicted of healthcare fraud. He was excused both from restitution payments and from serving his prison sentence after paying $1 million to dine with Trump. Walczak’s mother is also a top Trump donor....

There may be good reasons for Trump's circumvention of the penalties.  We'd love to hear them.

Ahhhhh--but there's more.

 ...there’s the insider-trading epidemic and Trump’s pattern of buying stocks in companies that subsequently benefit from his own policy decisions....

... As the New York Times reported last week, “Thirteen [online prediction market] users wagered a total of $140,000 that Israel would strike Iran by the end of that week, even as the odds suggested that an attack was unlikely. Seven of the accounts had been opened just days earlier. Another had a history of bets related to military action against Iran — and had won money on all of them. Israel attacked Iran later that day, netting the accounts more than $600,000 in profits.”...

That's a LOT of smoke.

And, of course, there's Miriam Adelson's war.

Most of these beneficiaries are "Epstein Class" peeps--which reminds us to ask about the remaining Epstein files, just like Massie did before he was (metaphorically) drawn and quartered by special-interest money and a well-timed smear. By the way:  we are very much in favor of compensating the "rioters" (not really rioters) who were destroyed following J6.  Donalds explains this very well.  Showing up at a rally and waving a flag--or acting in self-defense after Pelosi ordered unjust gas attacks--is not a crime worthy of 2 years' incarceration BEFORE the trial starts.  Period.  F**K Pelosi.

Moving on..... 

Rumors have Tulsi Gabbard leaving soon to prep for a '28 Presidential run.   

Apparently she has good reasons to bail out.

Meantime, there's Omar.  SS,DD 

Breitbart Re-Arranges History of Schlitz

Sadly, it's not hard to find egregious errors in media stories these days.

Here's one:

 ...Schlitz Premium, a beer brand that dates all the way back to Milwaukee in the 1840s, went from being one of the largest breweries in the U.S. to being placed “on hiatus,” its parent company Pabst Brewing Co. said on Friday....

There is no "Schlitz Premium" brand.  It's just Schlitz.

Here's a much larger error:

... The Schlitz brand was once the largest brewery in the U.S. before it was bought out by Anheuser-Busch in the 1950s...

WRONG.  Anheuser-Busch did not purchase Schlitz in the '50's.  Stroh purchased it in the '80's.

Egads.