Over The Line

 I see that Tulsi Gabbard made it over the NO vote of soon-to-be-gone Mitch McConnell and was conformed as Director of National Intelligence (DNI).  Excellent.

Now I’m wondering:  who, exactly, approved the action which placed her on a “security risk” (SSSS*) list last year after she switched parties and became a Trump supporter?

If it was her predecessor, then he’s gone, no big deal.  Then we have to ask:  who  motivated the action, if it wasn’t him?

Either way, I hope that Gabbard goes after the asshole — because if a former member of Congress can get blacklisted that way by the government, who is safe?

(Oh, and one last thought:  I just hope that in her new positions she leaves behind all her earlier anti-2A bullshit.)


*SSSS:  the code letters printed on your boarding pass that cause an “enhanced security check” when you check in.  (FYI:  it once happened to me too, for reasons never specified.)

Rolling Back The Greenies #17

…and about fucking time, too.  More goodness from POTUS:

I am hereby instructing Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc., and to likewise go back to the common sense standards on LIGHT BULBS, that were put in place by the Trump Administration, but terminated by Crooked Joe. I look forward to signing these Orders.

Or, to be more formal about it:

President Donald Trump is waging war against former President Joe Biden’s green energy regulations on Americans’ household appliances.

Is there any way to make this stuff permanent?  Oh wait, that would require Congressional assistance.

Nemmind.

Just a reminder of what he’s talking about:

Biden imposed climate standards for some appliances, including gas stoves, washing machines, and dishwashers during his only term as president.

In July of 2023, the Biden administration cracked down on water heaters by slapping them with greater efficiency standards.

The following month, Biden imposed a ban on incandescent light bulbs, limiting what kinds of lighting would be available for consumers.

In 2023, Biden proposed a rule targeting ceiling fans.

…and the list goes on and on, all about Big Gummint sticking its nose into our private lives, and screwing it all up.

Lifeline

You all remember that POTUS Trump signed an Executive Order which offered asylum to those South African farmers under threat of property confiscation (and worse) at the hands of the terrorist organization ANC.  Here’s a reminder, and then an interesting response from a representative of said farmers:

In your order, you made special provisions for Afrikaners to be given opportunities in the United States. We sincerely appreciate this, as many farmers in South Africa face dire circumstances—threats of land expropriation, increasing rural crime, and discriminatory access to financing and other critical resources. For some, the opportunity you have extended may be their only viable path forward.

That said, as a fundamental patriot yourself, you will understand our commitment to stay and fight for our home. Africa is in our blood, and despite the challenges, the vast majority of us have chosen to struggle within the ambit of our constitution.

We are also grateful for the programs that have allowed over 100,000 young South Africans to work on American farms, gaining valuable skills, exposure to advanced agricultural technologies, and a financial foundation to launch their own careers in the agricultural value chains back home.

Please do not close that door. These opportunities inspire and equip our young people and are not available for them in South Africa. It give them a launching pad for their livelihoods when they return from the USA. We are not asking for any young South Africans to be excluded – for us it is enough to be included on merit.

And then he goes on to describe the problem, in detail.  It’s worth a read, I promise you.

I invite you to imagine how this letter would have been received by a Democrat administration of the Obama/Biden sort.

Change Of Direction

I had a piece planned for yesterday, and ran into some thought issues which required redoing — hence its non-appearance yesterday — and it was replaced with Jan Sterling, which isn’t a bad compromise, all things considered.

It would have been, I think, an interesting piece.  I was going to write about music, and lyrics, and playing around with them and not only interpreting them, but changing them into another format, writing music notation, changing orchestral pieces into something which could be played by a rock band, for instance, or a single pianist.  It’s something I do often, in my head.  New Wife sometimes says something to me and is annoyed when I make no sign that I’ve heard her.  And when I tell her I’ve been concentrating on something and she asks what, I reply that I’d been writing out the bass guitar part for, I dunno, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini perhaps, or imagining how a single keyboardist could play an entire Beethoven symphony using just two or three keyboards (piano, and couple of advanced synthesizers like those made by Nord or Roland, for example).

Then (via Insty) I read Override, and all my thoughts on music disappeared.  The report had such a profound effect on me that I’ve since read it perhaps eight times (and counting), and I’ve sent the link on to a dozen friends all over the world, saying in effect, “If you want to know what’s REALLY happening here in the U.S., this is it.”

What astonishes and amazes me is the amount of preparation and planning that went into this activity, and the fact that it remained a secret for who knows how long — a year, several years, whatever — without an inkling or a leak anywhere.  The proof is that when those four kids with laptops hit the Treasury system, nobody saw it coming;  and I don’t think anyone, even its architects, had any idea of the outcome.

What astonishes me even more is that all those hundreds of Executive Orders signed by Trump in the past couple of weeks were, while consequential, more of a deception, a maskirovka  designed to keep the Left distracted while the real business was going on in the basements of federal buildings all over D.C.

It takes a lot to knock me over and flabbergast me, but consider me knocked over and flabbergasted.  And I have only one thing to say:

For the first time in many years, I can truthfully say that it’s a wonderful time to be alive here in America.

Let’s just hope we can keep it going, and change this country back into something more like what our Founding Fathers intended.

Oh, and speaking about the Founders and original principles, as if all the above were not enough, here’s another EO from POTUS:

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday “to assess any ongoing infringements” of the right to keep and bear arms.

The order also makes clear President Trump wants an assessment of the following, among other things:

The positions taken by the United States in any and all ongoing and potential litigation that affects or could affect the ability of Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights; Agencies’ classifications of firearms and ammunition; and The processing of applications to make, manufacture, transfer, or export firearms.

And “assessment” is one thing;  action is another.  But wait! There’s MOAR!

Within 30 days, Attorney General Pam Bondi is to “present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”  Thereafter AG Bondi is to finalize and implement the plan.

30 days?  I think I need one of these:

…and a series of these:

Or maybe all this political turmoil and castigation of the Left is best enjoyed stone-cold sober, while I dance up and down like Flounder when the parade was ruined.

Your thoughts in Comments.

Boo-Yah

Amidst all the excellent news items I’ve read (so far) this week — fedgov departments closed, useless people fired, lawbreakers under investigation etc. — I think this one gave me the greatest pleasure:

The U.S. Army recently announced it shattered previous recruiting records, with December 2024 being the most productive December in 15 years.

The branch reported it enlisted nearly 350 soldiers every day that month, Army officials announced Tuesday on social media.

In January 2025, the Army hit its best recruiting number in 15 YEARS.

Putting that into perspective:

During the last fiscal year (2024), the Army missed its recruiting goal by 15,000 active-duty soldiers. That makes 25% of its target. This shortfall forced the Army to cut its planned active-duty end strength from 476,000 to 466,000. Army officials project that active end strength could shrink by as much as 20,000 soldiers by September, down to 445,000.

It just shows you that under the right leadership, Americans want to serve their country.

Re-Directing The Dollars

Something struck me when I was reading this fine report about the closure of the dreadful USAID department, and it relates to budget priorities.  Consider this little litany of silliness:

Now just in cash terms, those items alone account for about $7.5million, being sent to furriners.

The question:  Wouldn’t those dollars have been better spent by sending them to those folks in North Carolina blown out of their homes by tropical storm Helene? 

And the corollary question:  Wouldn’t those “hundreds of thousands of meals” been more appreciated by those same North Carolinians, many of whom, months after the storm, are still living in TENTS?

Let’s put all this into concrete terms that people can understand.

The problem with being such a wealthy country is that sometimes we’re blase about sums of money that seem trivial in the grand scheme of things;  $7.5million doesn’t seem like a lot of money compared to other budgetary expenditures, and indeed it isn’t at a macro level.

But let’s convert that “macro” to “micro”.  Giving $75,000 dollars each to a hundred families in desperate need of assistance — American families, let me remind you — has the potential to turn their lives around completely.  And that’s worth a lot more than a ticket to an LGBTOSTFU opera in Colombia.

Stop pissing money away on foreigners and start looking after American taxpayers.