It’s amusing and instructive to listen to the Democrats complained that Trump’s nominees for various cabinet posts are not qualified for the positions they’ve been nominated for, when in fact they have been supporting both Biden and Harris, two people who clearly were not qualified for the positions that they held.
Then, too, let’s consider the individuals identified administration thought were in fact qualified:
Let’s break this one down.
A cabinet post does not mean by any stretch of anyone’s imagination that one needs to have serious experience directly relatable to the department which one overseas. A cabinet position does not mean that they are going to be running the day-to-day operations of their departments. That’s not their job.
Presidential cabinet members are there to ensure that the policies of the duly elected president are carried out. That’s it. No more, no less.
The Democrats would have us limited to people of supposed expertise, (are those of political convenience) but the fact of the matter is the tyranny of expertise has not served us well at all, and neither has political convenience.
I submit to you that the current method of selecting cabinet positions has led, for example, to the direct pipeline of people from Goldman Sachs to the US Treasury and the back again. The results on our economy of that pipeline have been anything but laudable.
Similarly, we’ve ended up with supposed experts from Bristol Myers AstraZeneca, etc hip deep in the doings of the FDA. The mishandling of covid should be considered a clear demonstration of the value of that pipeline.
The reason that the Democrats are scrambling trying to prevent these nominees from being confirmed, simply put, is that they will actually do their job, making sure that the president’s policies are carried out. That, my friends, is their worst fear.
It’s also important to recognize that to a man, every one of Trump’s cabinet appointees have had their rights abused by the very agencies that they are appointed to oversee. That is probably the most important factor of all in this.
The war of words between AOC and Nancy Pelosi is revealing on a number of different levels.
First off, it demonstrates just how far to the left AOC is. I mean, where is there to go when you’re too far left for Nancy Pelosi?
It also shows that Pelosi, for all of her faults, has begun to realize just how dearly having AOC in their caucus has cost the Democrats.
Pelosi has never been comfortable around AOC. I have had several reports over the years that whenever the two interacted, Pelosi was seen drinking more lunch than usual.
Now that AOC has gotten a little taste of power, she appears to be thinking that she stands a chance at the Democrat party leadership in the house. After all, Pelosi is not going to be around much longer, however you slice it.
That said, given the current mood of the country as regards the Democrats she may be in the Democrat leadership but she’s never going to be speaker. Thank God for small favors.
Scott Jennings writes:
“Inflation is transitory. Afghanistan is a success.
The border is secure.
Robert Hur is a liar.
The videos are cheap fakes.
Biden has a cold.
He’ll never drop out.
Oh, I’ll never pardon Hunter.”
And here’s the thing, if I’m right in what I said this morning about the majority of the people being pardoned by Biden being chosen not by Biden but by his surrogates, then we still have a problem going forward even after Biden is out of the White House.
Watch the video and then I’ll have something to add.
Okay, now that you’ve seen the vid and heard what Dennis had to say, I have one thing to add.
Postulate the Middle East without Israel. Let’s Make Believe for just a moment that Israel does not exist. Does anyone seriously believe that the region would be peaceful?
The fact of the matter is that the problem has always been the cultural influence of Islam.
It should come as no surprise that among the nearly 1,500 individuals
whose sentences Biden commuted last week were at least three Democratic
politicians and several public officials, including a disgraced former
judge infamous for orchestrating a scheme that sent thousands of
children to jail in exchange for kickbacks, according to a report by The Daily Caller.
To begin with, I am completely unconvinced that Biden has the mental capacity to be creating such a list of people. Indeed, what we have seen of his mental decline in public begs the question, did he even know what he was signing.
One is reminded of Henry Blake and Radar O’Reilly
“Sign this, sir.*
” What is this I’m signing, Radar?”
“Oh, you’re not supposed to know sir. Top secret.”
All of which translates to the idea that the list of people who got the get out of jail free card, were on lists created by by his fellow Democrats, within the Democrat establishment.
Such is the legacy of Joe Biden, but more, this is today’s Democrat party. It is situation that needs to be investigated by congressional oversight, and seriously considered at the next election.
And by the way, this is not unprecedented. I would urge you to, in the search engine of your choice, do a little investigation into “operation wetback”.
That’s a good thing to see, but what we really need to see, and I emphasize the word need, is jail time being passed out to the participants. Including, and especially, the people directing that operation.
Meanwhile, hey Steve, Welcome to the party pal.
This guy only posts alerts and many folks don’t think he’s credible. But I thought it was important to share. Scary if true. I haven’t verified anything to get it out quickly.
Well, that’s interesting. But I am unconvinced that this is a major concern at this point.
First, as Linda indicates the guy is something of an alarmist, and always has been. I’ve never posted anything on this blog from this guy before, and I expect it’ll be the last time. I also expect he’s simply trying to generate traffic on his channel. I find it difficult to take him seriously…. But let’s go with what we have for the sake of discussion.
Most of you know that I’m an amateur radio operator and have been for years. The technology to send messages via “waterfall” have been part of amateur radio for a long time, a couple of years at least. I can send that kind of message myself. It’s not hard at all, nor is it complex these days. Sending such messages a couple of years ago was something of a fad. Birthday greetings, call signs, things like that. All legal,
As little as 20 years ago it would have been difficult to send, much less receive, (20 years ago very very few radios had waterfall displays) but with modern radios and computer control, no big deal.
Indeed, today, there’s only a couple of zillion transmitters that are capable of transmitting on those Russian frequencies, with only slight alteration.
Where the scenario this guy is pitching falls down, however, is where in the blazes would he get information about large amounts of encrypted data being sent to US commanders in the field?
First of all, the usual circuit involves VHF and UHF to satellites, very low power, very high speed, encrypted, and sent and received with very directional antennas. These are not likely to be able to be monitored in the manner he’s suggesting, encrypted or no.
Secondly, even in the (rather unlikely) event that the signals from the Pentagon through satellites to commanders in the field could be received by people other than the intended targets, it’s pure speculation to suggest that the data being sent to commanders in the field at this point is in response to the message he shows us. The messages are encrypted as he says so how would he know what was in them? Fact is, he doesn’t.
That aside, there are other questions, too.
For example, if it’s the Russians targeting the Ukrainians or the Ukrainians targeting the Russians why would the message be in English?
My expectation is that with the length of time to generate the signal we see in the video, our military would have plenty of time to triangulate it. They know pretty well already, where it came from.
Was the message generated, or sanctioned by either government? I have my doubts.
Frankly the only thing that gives me pause about any of this, is the current state of the White House. Consider, that any of the bad actors, if they really intended on making some kind of a major move, China, Russia, Iran etc, they would make it before January 20th. I mean, can you possibly imagine a White House more ill-prepared for such doing, than the one we have for the next month?
That said, I have my doubts that’s what this is. The most likely scenario to my mind, my awis some Ukrainian individual trying to tweak the Russian brass a little. There are many Ukrainian amateurs who have had the capability of sending such messages. We’ve seen it before.
The second most likely is some third party who isn’t even involved in that area sticking their nose in.
Either way, the original message, the subject of the video, most likely did not come with the sanction of any government.
All that said, I will reiterate that we should not underestimate the importance of the fact that the message was sent in English not in Russian not a Ukrainian and not in say, Chinese. I regard the message as a deliberate attempt to create a reaction on the part of the West. The US, Great Britain and so on.
I’m unable to speculate further without more data, which does not seem to me likely in coming.
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f–k things up.”
It’s to the point now where the Joe Biden Presidential library might never be built. Is somebody going to pay a million dollars for the privilege of hearing him Mumble through a less than coherent speech?
He certainly not going to get any money from the party, which now finds itself millions of dollars in debt as a result of Kamala Harris, the Obama choice for Biden’s replacement, blowing through a record breaking billion dollars and then going even beyond that, to leave the party of financial shambles. So, no money from there.
The Democrat donor class, frustrated with how things have gone have also tightened the purse strings. So no money from there either.
Short version, the party is dead broke, and it’s prospects of a fast financial recovery are nonexistent.
As a result of all of this, I would suggest that the days of Obama holding the reins of the party are over.
Thing is, who is it ready to stand forward to replace him? At the moment, the answer is nobody. So the result of the one two punch of 4 years of what can only be called a failed administration, and all of the extreme left nonsense surrounding it have left the party in disarray.
So what’s left for them now? Not much, really. Even with the true believers, there is a realization beginning to happen. The understanding is starting to form that Trump’s Landslide occurred with the help of a goodly number of previously Democrat voters. The understanding that so much of what the extreme left has always been promulgating as virtues, we’re actually liabilities. The recognition that their problems did not involve not screaming “Trump as Hitler” loud enough.
Solutions to problems required that the problem itself be properly identified. That’s pretty basic. The problems for the Democrat party started back in 2016 which was about the time they started allowing the crazies to take over. That bubble kept growing until election day 2024 when it finally popped. The crazies, of course, will never get the message that was sent by the millions of Democratic party voters who crossed the line and voted for Trump.
It’s the party is to survive at all, they’re going to have to get the idea that there is a reason why so many rank and file Democrats decided that Trump, who the Democrat leadership deemed so inferior, was in fact a better deal for this country and its people.
The open question at this point is whether or not they will have the courage and the integrity to look in the mirror so the answer to the question of who is to blame for all of this.
I doubt it.
After watching this vid from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, is a rare event where he got something right and not nearly politically correct, I begin to believe that anything is possible.
I am driven by these events and these comments to ask if the shooting and the left at their reaction to that shooting ….celebration instead of condemnation…. is a tacit admission that Obamacare is an abject failure?
I have to further wonder if the shooting of leftist politicians will soon follow? You know, the ones that were pushing Obamacare to begin with.
I suggest that if not, the pretext for the shooting is well off base to begin with even from a purely logical standpoint, and certainly from a moral standpoint.
Anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together would look at the situation and recognize that this killing has done the liberal agenda no favors. Absent supportive reaction from the usual suspects, it would have been regarded as a lone wolf, and independent crazy, and that would have been the end of it.
However, the celebratory reaction from the left on social media is indicative of just how whack job the left has gotten, and if you think the American voter, the American people don’t understand that, try again.
This and the left’s reaction to it will I believe cause a gag reflex in the American voter. They will remember this in the next several elections.
Let’s be perfectly clear, here… The problems that we face with a healthcare system today are a direct result of the influence and interference of government in the healthcare process.
If we properly identify the source of the problem, does that mean that politicians are going to be receiving bullets for Christmas?
Say what you will, but not only was both the act of the killing immoral, but so too was the celebratory reaction. But more, when you properly identify the source of the problem, which is government, The killing doesn’t even make any logical sense, much less moral sense.
As a side note, this case at least in part is going to fall under the jurisdiction of SDNY. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Addendum;Per Yahoo News:
In one social media post, he [The CEO killer] said he used to get “bummed out” in maths class because “all the low hanging fruit has been solved before I was born”.
He added that he was now grateful for his “21st century education” and he would focus on issues including “evolutionary psychology, primitive neuroscience, and information networks”.
After becoming valedictorian of his 2016 high school class at Gilman School in Baltimore, which costs around $40,000 a year, Mr Mangione went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most prestigious universities in America.
He then went on to work as a data engineer for TrueCar living in California and later Honolulu, Hawaii, according to his LinkedIn.
According to his Goodreads account Mr Mangione was sympathetic towards Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) writing:
“He was a violent individual – rightfully imprisoned – who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterised as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”
….Mr Mangione went on to share an online take he said was “interesting” which read: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/luigi-mangione-murder-suspect-thought-202359160.html
If you think this is a a one-off, a unique situation, it most certainly is not.
I am now seeing reports that BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome Isa calling for “Black vigilantes” to hunt down and kill White New Yorkers after the Daniel Penny acquittal. (Apparently he was unaware that there were a number of black people on that jury.)
This is the nature of the hive mind.
Somewhere, David L is smiling. He wrote on this topic often enough, here.
Crystal Mangum, the woman who falsely accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape in 2006, admitted she lied about the allegations and asked for David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann’s forgiveness.
Speaking personally, I would be waiting for apologies from the people that jumped on this woman’s politically correct and totally wrong bandwagon back in the day.
Flashback and added info
So rule number one if you want things to improve is Get government out of the way.
Word from Ed Driscoll this morning, that Syria’s Assad is now gone into hiding…. his family’s dictatorship has now ended.
Well, the first obviousness that pops up here is that nature abhors a vacuum. That’s already been mentioned and I doubt it will be the last time, even for this thread.
Look; No question that Assad was bad…(or is, if you’d like to assume that he’s still breathing) … but that does not equate to an improvement of the situation. There’s no question that the many years of civil war there have been problematic at least… but the guy who led the opposition, one Abu Mohammed al-Golani: is a former Al-Quieda chief. I doubt his taking over Syria is a positive development, for the whole world and particularly for the people of Syria and the surrounding countries.At best, this will be “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”…. but I have my doubts it will be even THAT good.
In what may be the only positive event surrounding this, I see that Israel, following the removal of Assad, has moved to take Mt Hermon, which, IIRC, gives them a decided advantage in their battles with Hezbollah. It also gives them a strategic advantage in protecting their border with Syria now that Syrian troops have abandoned their posts. One wonders if the Former Al-Quieda leader will try to attack Israel since AQ has a clear shot at the border.
But with that new situation for Israel, it strikes me as unlikely that Iran actually WANTED to overthrow Assad. They would never give Israel a tactical advantage, even if it worked in Iran’s favor, too. Their withdrawal was simple recognition that they couldn’t keep the defense of Assad much longer.
I also wonder what efforts Iran is making to establish a relationship with the new Junta.
Another point; I doubt it’s an accident that after so many years of standoff fighting, that the takeover happens mere weeks before the changing of the government here in the states. There’s a hand involved here that we’re not seeing, yet. We’ve been commenting for weeks that Biden looks to be leaving a number of traps for Trump, and it strikes me as likely this is but one more such. So, what did the Biden gang know, and what did they do about it?
Final point; The Iranian forces that were assigned to Assad’s security details have all disappeared. I wouldn’t put it past the Iranians to have deliberately withdrawn their support, to their own eventual advantage.
