Still on patrol ...

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Mr.President, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul

David Strom’s point man on this one

It has been less than a month since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Yet so much has happened that it seems the Biden administration is a distant memory. 

Sure, we are still dealing with all the problems Biden left behind. As government statistics get revised from pre-election numbers, employment numbers have been revised downward, and inflation upward. Trump appointees are having to scramble to recover billions of dollars that the Biden administration tossed out the door to fund all the leftist grifts and the Justice Department is bogged down with fighting leftist lawfare. 

But despite all the potholes and roadblocks, Trump is making huge progress. 

Because he didn't hire morons like Jared Bernstein:

For some reason, I was reminded of this clip, so I dug it up. Here is Biden's Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors--the most influential "economist" in the administration. This man, as much as anyone, created Bidenomics. And he is an ignorant fool. He doesn't understand the most basic of economic concepts, and he was in charge of economic policy. 

You almost never saw an interview with Bernstein because even Pravda Media couldn't pass him off as anything but a fool. Rather than reporting that the most economically ignorant man in America was designing Biden's economic policies, they buried the lede and told us that the numbers showed that Biden had the Best Economy Ever™. 

Even Chuck Todd would know that Bernstein looks like a fool here. Rachel Maddow would probably wince watching this. Jake Tapper wouldn't be able to hold back his trademark confused scowl at an answer like that. Chances are that even Katilin Collins would hear that answer and conclude that Bernstein was a fool. 

The solution? Hide Bernstein and repeat propaganda endlessly. Government statistics say everything is great! Ignore the man behind the curtain!

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.

The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors. The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding.

While we're on Idiot Patrol ...

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Marco Rubio Leaves CBS News’ Margaret Brennan Speechless After She Claimed Nazis ‘Weaponized’ Free Speech.

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.

Whether you love or hate what is being said, if you don’t believe in their right to say it you are a totalitarian. Counter speech you dislike with facts, but don’t try to suppress it. Else you become the very thing you think you’re fighting against. It’s great to see the highest levels of American government defending THESE values in places that increasingly need it the most.

We’ve reached the moment in Mel Brooks’ The Producers when Max Bialystock asks his would-be director Roger De Bris if he’s read Springtime for Hitler, and De Bris responds, “Remarkable, remarkable! A stunning piece of work…I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany. I mean it’s just drenched with historical goodies like that” [Video]

It started off slowly, then the Xers stepped on the gas

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“two to three squares on 'pesky occasions”

Little Miss One Sheet of Toilet Paper tried to make a point, and was immediately wiped out

But wait, there’s more!

Most likely a false alarm, just because the odds are low, but let's hear it for our new friends from Uganda anyway (UPDATE — not Ebola)

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Just back from visiting the homeland.

Officials feared Ebola infections because patients had traveled from Uganda and had symptoms consistent with the disease but no tests had confirmed its presence, the sources added.

If it were closer to the 2026 elections I’d be more worried. Still, unlamented former congressarian Jamaal Bowman did pull a fire alarm to disrupt a hearing that wasn’t going his way, and there are currently a bunch of unhappy CDC workers wandering the country so ….

Hang 'em all

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What so infuriated me at the time, when the upcoming lockdown had been announced but not yet put into effect, was that it was screamingly obvious that (a) two weeks would do nothing — we were being lied to; and (b) you can’t shut the entire country’s economy, let alone the world’s, on-and-off like a light switch: these people were out to cause massive harm, for some deeper reason known only to them.

And of course, there was more to come:

Apparently, they didn't have a chance to impregnate our white wimmin, but that's only due to good fortune and efficient police work

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Hang ‘im high: “Police say the driver of the vehicle, 21-year-old Hamza A. Mahamud of Roxbury, Mass., did not have a valid driver’s license.”

A traffic stop following a police chase in South Portland early Saturday morning led to the arrest of two Massachusetts men on drugs and weapons charges after police found large amounts of suspected drugs in the vehicle hidden in candy packaging.

South Portland Police say that at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, an officer in a marked police cruiser on Westbrook Street observed a vehicle passing at a high rate of speed.

When the officer began to follow the vehicle with lights and sirens on in order to attempt to conduct a traffic stop for the speeding violation, the vehicle did not stop and continued through the Brickhill neighborhood [*], police said.

Ultimately the suspect vehicle was cornered in a dead end after turning on to Osprey Circle, at which point the vehicle backed into the police cruiser in “an apparent attempt to evade and go around,” but was disabled as a result of the collision.

The driver and passenger of the vehicle were then ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint, police said.

Police learned during the on-scene investigation that both males inside of the vehicle were from Massachusetts.

During a search of the vehicle, large amounts of suspected drugs were found disguised in popular candy packaging. Officers also seized a knife, drug equipment, cash and several cell phones from the vehicle.

Mahamud was charged with reckless conduct with dangerous weapon, aggravated criminal mischief, unlawful trafficking in cocaine and marijuana, unlawful possession of methamphetamine and cocaine base (crack cocaine), aggravated trafficking in heroin and fentanyl powder, operating without a license, failure to stop and driving to endanger.

The passenger, 33-year-old Gerald A. Daughtry of Roslindale, Mass., was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, unlawful trafficking in cocaine and marijuana, unlawful possession of methamphetamine, aggravated trafficking in heroin and fentanyl powder and unlawful possession of cocaine base.

*(Not considered a desirable neighborhood by many former and current residents)

My gosh, Governor LePage was fun:

As the polar bears return to their ice floes ....

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The Transition That Isn’t

John Hinderaker

One could assemble news stories like the ones below just about any day of the week:

Ford Loses Another $5.1B On EVs.

This week, Ford Motor Company reported that it lost $5.1 billion on its EV business in 2024. …

Kelley Blue Book reported that Ford’s EV sales were 30,176 for the fourth quarter and 97,865 for the entire year. Therefore, Ford lost $46,394 for each EV it sold in the fourth quarter and $52,113 for each EV it sold in 2024.

For the full year, Ford reported net income of about $5.9 billion. Thus, Ford’s operating losses on EVs were nearly equal to its total profits.

“How long will shareholders stand for that?

“Activist fund pushes BP to cut costs and ditch green investment. BP went woke, renaming itself and insisting that BP doesn’t stand for British Petroleum. What does it stand for, then?”

The activist investor that has amassed a £4 billion position in BP is pushing for the British oil giant to emulate Shell’s strategy in cost-cutting and ditching green investments.
***
Elliott hopes to see BP scale back its capital investment, pursue the highest-return prospects and sell off significant parts of the group to cut debt and ditch “ideological” investments, the source said.

“The reality is that corporate managements around the world have violated their fiduciary duty to shareholders by putting ideology above profit. Massive, multi-billion dollar shareholder lawsuits should follow.”

Giant gas field discovery could power Britain for a decade. The subhed: “Exploiting the find could add up to £112bn to GDP and create tens of thousands of jobs.” ….

Its preliminary work suggests that the field, centred on the market town of Gainsborough, is so large that it could benefit the whole UK economy, boosting growth through more jobs, increased tax revenue and cheaper energy.
***
Deloitte estimated that exploiting the Gainsborough Trough field could add up to $140bn (£112bn) to GDP, yield $34bn in direct taxation and create tens of thousands of jobs. It said that CO2 emissions would be 218m tonnes lower than if Britain uses imported gas instead.

“That last is basically a fig leaf for politicians who are not yet ready to admit that “net zero” is a joke.

“The tide has turned on “green” energy, which in fact is devastating to the environment. Every day, we are seeing a return to common sense and a re-prioritization of affordable and reliable energy. This obviously is the philosophy of the Trump administration, but the same thing is happening around the world. And, in a sign of the times, Greta Thunberg has moved on from being grotesquely wrong about energy to being grotesquely wrong about the Middle East.”

I join David Strom in his delight at getting it wrong

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Like Strom, I had hoped that DeSantis would prevail in the primaries because I believed he could do what Trump couldn’t. I still like DeSantis, but the Trumpster turns out to have been the right man for the job after all.

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. 

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

… 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."

… [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. 

Rather than disposing of his allies like used tissues, he went to bat for them, pushed them to the forefront, and made himself bigger not by crowding them out but by adding their charisma to his. 

“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. 

I worried that this term would be a repeat of the first--a missed opportunity to destroy the Deep State. 

Boy, was I wrong. Trump took the lumps, took the lesson, and came into his second term with a shock and awe plan that has the transnational elite reeling, the Deep State terrified and flailing, and doubters taking a second and third look. 

The bolder Trump is, the higher his approval ratings. 

He has assembled a dream team, empowered them to go to war with the bureaucracy, and at least for now, they are winning. The elite is playing a game of chicken right now with their legal strategy, hoping to delay what appears to be inevitable. 

As they valorize the bureaucracy and Pravda outlets like The New York Times suddenly question whether a dime could be cut out of the budget, the Republicans keep wiping the floor with them. 

A TRILLION dollars, just by doing the most obvious things. And the Democrats are screaming to defend the fraud. 

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. 

And another one bites the dust (UPDATED)

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make sure he doesn’t take any office stationery with him

Good Riddance: Acting National Archives Chief Retires With Emo Farewell Letter to Remaining Staff

… One of the federal entity's top leaders made his fond farewell on Friday, with what can only be described as an emo letter to the rest of the staff. CNN's headline, and the lede (below), will give you a hint on exactly where this is heading:

White House forcing out top leadership at National Archives in major shakeup

The Trump administration is forcing out senior leadership at the National Archives and Records Administration in a major shakeup, according to a source familiar. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the archives since the agency asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office.

…

“…. [It] was not just the Biden WH that took part of this nefarious plot: The National Archives absolutely played a role in facilitating the corruption-riddled FBI's early morning incursion on the home of a former president of the United States--seeking a linchpin on which to hang a damning bit of lawfare against Trump, the leading political opponent in the then-ongoing presidential race.

UPDATE. Still more good news: Rats are fleeing the Good Ships NIH and CDC.

…. Lauer was a COVID crackdown enthusiast from the start — a company man through and through. His will surely be missed by his also-soon-to-be-gone former colleagues and handful of suburban wine moms who put Fauci shrines on their lawns, but by no one else.

Lauer was NIH, but the story keeps getting better:

…[I]n a story that will surely tug at your heartstrings, over at the CDC — which, if it’s possible, is even more diseased than NIH — panic has set in among staff while moral has “plummeted.”

Via NPR:

Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are on edge this week, as rumors of job cuts circulate. Employees are bracing for a significant reduction in the work force that appears to be targeting those with the fewest worker protections…

CDC staff who've gone through other administration changes say the transition has been unlike anything they've experienced before, with "fewer meetings, fewer requests for information," and little attempt to understand how things work…

"It is extremely difficult and traumatizing for federal staff to see reporting on this as if it is doable and legal," the former employee who requested anonymity told NPR.

"The CDC staff I know and have worked with for more than 25 years are dedicated public servants and don't deserve to be mistreated in this way."

By their posts shall ye know them (Updated)

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“that’s why nobody watches CNN anymore because they have no credibility.” Donald J. Trump

CNN's Kaitlan Collins boosts Luigi Mangione's legal defense fund—deletes post after backlash

"Luigi Mangione's legal defense team has launched a new website today."

Related?

Here is XGrok’s recital of the “career” of Mr.Mangione, and “his current legal situation”:

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, David Strom offers a good take on the story.

Kaitlan Collins, White House Correspondent for CNN, sent out a tweet promoting the defense fund for Luigi Mangione, the assassin who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

The new defense fund was announced in a "Valentine's Day Message" posted by his defense team on a new website. 

…. Collins' tweet was startling because, first of all, she is White House Correspondent and hence has nothing to do with covering the case; secondly, because it sure looked like a call to go to the site and perhaps donate; and third, one of Collins' colleagues--a CNN analyst--will be a direct beneficiary because she is on the defense team. 

Mangione is a cold-blooded killer but has become a folk hero on the left. There is no question that he is the killer--his manifesto makes clear that he is--and his legal team, while doing their job, is stoking the "hero" narrative rather than fighting on purely legal terms. It certainly isn't Collins' job to jump on that bandwagon.

…. There is something dark and violent at the heart of modern liberal politics. It celebrates death. Abortion, assisted suicide, sterilizing and mutilating children, population control/antinatalism, and of course political murder in this case and many others. 

Remember CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle? A violent occupation of one of America's great cities that the Mayor called the "Summer of Love." Revolutionary violence is in their DNA. 

Massachusetts protects child rapists, letting them go and hiding them from ICE as long as they are illegal aliens. It is child sacrifice. 

This isn't an American phenomenon. Great Britain has a stunning case right now, in which a man burned a Koran and was stabbed by a Muslim extremist. The man who burned the Koran was remanded to prison, while the man who knifed him was let out on bail. Burning a Koran is more offensive to the authorities than stabbing that man. 

So I shouldn't be surprised that Collins didn't even expect pushback for her promoting Mangione's defense fund. It seems perfectly normal in her world, where you can kill people as long as you really don't like them for the "right" reasons. 

I wonder, if somebody shot Elon Musk, whether she would do the same for his murderer?