I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This would be the time of year when we all looked forward to spring. One of the first signs of spring was baseball. That started with spring training. But the most important day was opening day. I loved to listen to Ernie Harwell broadcast the Detroit Tiger games. I was always in awe that the weather was already warm enough in places like Detroit that they could play baseball games outdoors. In the UP we were still weeks away from the ice breaking up on Lake Gogebic.

This year there are a lot of indications that a good Spring and Summer is on the way. The vaccine roll-out is really starting to show effect. The CDC has finally stopped lying about COVID 19 test results and they have also stopped lying about the number of people dying from COVID 19. While Joe Biden is putting on photo ops trying to take credit for everything, this is not fooling anyone. Even the MSM knows that the only reason we have that vaccine and the massive number of doses available is because of Donald Trump. This was all in place long before the November election.

I strongly believe by Spring most of the current restrictions will be significantly reduced. Indoor dining will be approved everywhere. Schools will reopen and we will be on a path toward normal. While Democrats desperately want to continue social distancing and masks indefinitely, those days are also coming to an end. It is this simple. As of today, 45,237,143 people have already been vaccinated, 20,607,261 have already received the second dose. Today over 17% of adults over 18 have been vaccinated. But what really matters is who is getting vaccinated. Originally it was given to politicians and first responders. Now teachers are shoving their way to the head of the line. But despite the political correctness, people over 65 are also getting the vaccine. Those are the people who want it and need it. I got my vaccine yesterday; my wife gets hers Friday. Virtually all my friends who are over 65 have either gotten the vaccine already or are scheduled to get it. This means by Easter Sunday, the people most vulnerable to COVID 19 will either have been vaccinated or scheduled to be vaccinated.

The scare tactics used to support social distancing and masks will not work anymore. Since people under age 65 face little risk, even if they get COVID 19. There are always exceptions but there are exceptions with every disease. I predict that soon and very soon there will be a serious national revolt against mask mandates. By summer, people wearing masks will be the exception, not the rule. At some point, sooner rather than later, sporting events will again be open to the public without restrictions. In addition to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, this year we will be celebrating the resurrection of our country.

Right now, Democrats are celebrating, and they have the bit in their mouth. They are dreaming of a socialist society. But Easter Sunday is right around the corner and soon the winds of change will be blowing strongly in the opposite direction. This will have a profound effect on the political environment. People are sick of being locked down, sick of being scared, and sick of having tyrannical governments control every aspect of our lives. Once people experience true freedom again, they will be highly motivated to prevent anyone from taking it away again. The desire for freedom will spread faster than any disease. The implications for the 2022 election cannot be ignored.

When you celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, pause, and say a brief prayer of thanksgiving and celebrate the resurrection of our country and the restoration of the freedom that will soon be returning. It is always darkest just before dawn.

TDM

Tester outlines defense budget strategy – POLITICO

While some people questioned whether Trump should have access to the nuclear codes, there was never a serious effort to change that. This is because things can happen in a hurry and someone must have the authority to take drastic action. While a lot of people hated Trump, they knew they could not make the case for removing these codes from him. There is a reason a President of the United States has that power.

But now several Democrats are suggesting exactly that regarding Joe Biden, and this appears to be far more serious:

REDUCING ‘REAL RISKS’: Nearly three dozen House Democrats on Monday called on Biden to relinquish his sole authority to launch nuclear weapons, in the latest appeal to reform the command-and-control structure so that no single person can initiate a nuclear war.

“…Vesting one person with this authority entails real risks,” states the letter spearheaded by Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California. “Past presidents have threatened to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that caused other officials to express concern about the president’s judgment.“

“While any president would presumably consult with advisors before ordering a nuclear attack, there is no requirement to do so,” the letter adds. “The military is obligated to carry out the order if they assess it is legal under the laws of war. Under the current posture of U.S. nuclear forces, that attack would happen in minutes.”

They offer a number of alternatives, including requiring other officials in the line of succession, such as the vice president and the speaker of the House — “neither of whom can be removed by the president if they disagree — to concur with a launch order.”

This is a public slap in the face of Joe Biden, but it is more than that. It is a recognizing that a President of the United States must be capable of making very difficult decisions under stress. That will always be part of the job requirement. If you don’t think the President is up to the job, remove him. That is the reason for the 25^th Amendment. It recognized the need for a legal mechanism for designating a head of state when the president is disabled or dead. But in this case, the problem is that Joe Biden is not disabled, he was never abled in the first place. Democrats wanted to use this against Trump because they hated his personality. But now there is probable cause to use it, because of Biden’s obvious senility. The problem is that removing Biden gives us Kamala Harris, who is arguably worse. The real problem is that Democrats willingly elected someone to be President of the United States even though he was clearly incapable of doing the job.

If 36 Democrats have already figured this out, we can bet more people are going to be expressing their concern. What struck me is that one of them is Jimmy Panetta. He is the son of Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense. Leon Panetta is very partisan, but he is not insane. In addition to being Secretary of Defense, he was Director of the CIA, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the White House Chief of Staff. Leon Panetta is a very serious man. It is hard to imagine his son doing this without consulting his father. Perhaps I am wrong, but it sure looks like some very serious members of the Democratic establishment are getting terrified at the thought of President Joe Biden making presidential decisions.

Soon and very soon, something will have to be done. But notice that no one is talking about the 25^th Amendment, because there is zero enthusiasm for President Kamala Harris. While this is insulting to Joe Biden, it is a devastating rebuke for Kamala Harris. If one feels the President is incapable, then the constitutional choice is to replace him with the Vice President. Since no one is even suggesting that, it means they do not consider her to be a viable option. If effect, they want to replace her with a committee.

This would be hysterical if it weren’t so serious. One of the strongest parts of our national security is the certainty that a nuclear attack on the U.S. would be met with an immediate a devasting response. Presidents have also refused to rule out a first strike with a nuclear weapon, because our nuclear arsenal is also a deterrent to a lot of really bad things like a chemical or biological attack. But what good is our nuclear arsenal if no one thinks we will the guts to use it. I pray we never have to use it but fear the day our enemies our enemies stop fearing us.

We are in end times. End of the illusion that Joe Biden is remotely capable of being President of the United States. There is increasing bi-partisan recognition of the problem. What is lacking is anyone having a viable strategy for fixing this problem. This is what happens when a political party forgets the consequences of electing someone to be President of the United States without regard to whether or not this person is remotely capable of doing the job.

TDM

Few people in this country have had more chances to screw things up more royally than Andrew Cuomo. He began His career as campaign manager for his father. He was the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Community Planning and Development from 1993 to 1997. In 1997 he became the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

It was Cuomo who facilitated the Subprime Mortgage fiasco that came perilously close to destroying the U.S. economy. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Give mortgages to people who didn’t have good credit and hadn’t been able to save up for a down payment. What could possibly go wrong. It did allow a lot of people get mortgages to buy homes they couldn’t afford. But who cared, because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were there to guarantee a lot of those loans. But it turned out that bad loans are bad loans  Ultimately a lot of people, particularly minorities, who got those great loans ended up losing their homes. In the meantime, Investment Bankers and Insurance companies joined the parade. When those homeowners eventually defaulted, the mortgage-based securities market collapsed with them.

There have been numerous scandals, at every office he has held. He publicly renewed an executive order signed by Eliot Spitzer that prevented the Governor of New York from receiving donations from gubernatorial appointment. Secretly he changed the rules. There are reports that 24 of his appointees donated $890,000 to his campaign as well as another $1.3 million from spouses etc. Cuomo admitted his error and graciously returned $2,500 of this money. He used money from Hurricane Sandy to promote New York and its great governor. The Moreland Commission, a commission he established to root out corruption in politics, was disbanded when they started, gasp, looking at him. There have, of course, been the usual allegations of sexual harassment.

But none of this seemed to even slow him down. The Democratic Party was desperate to find someone, anyone, who looked like a leader. During the COVID 19 disaster, Cuomo even won an Emmy for his press conferences, even though New York arguably handled this worse than any other state.  He was like the Democratic version of Donald Trump, only without any actual accomplishments and a glaring lack of a soul. But none of this mattered, because the MSM loved him and could see no evil.

That all changed recently when one of his top aids admitted withholding Nursing Home death data from the DOJ and the New York Legislatures, because they thought it would be politically embarrassing. Cuomo failed to recognize that this was really bad, so he doubled down on stupidity by holding press conferences that just exposed his incredible ability to lie with a straight face and pretend double talk is a substitute for an honest discussion. Even worse, the only error he recognized was the failure to silence his critics.  It soon became impossible to ignore the reality of Andrew Cuomo.

He is now facing a bi-partisan push to impeach him. DeBlasio, easily the worst Mayor in the history of New York, is now slamming Cuomo. Things are so bad CNN won’t risk any more episodes of the Chris and Andrew show where the Cuomo brothers put on a nightly comedy routine.

It is not clear that Cuomo will survive this one. The problem is that in addition to the corruption and arrogance  he clearly is a world-class jerk in real life. Once people sensed the loss of power, they came out of the woodwork to trash him. It seems like everyone has an Andrew Cuomo story, none of them good. Soon Cuomo is going to look like the loneliest man in politics.

In fairness to Cuomo, he is probably no worse than a lot of other people. But everyone is angry because of COVID 19. They are angry at the lockdowns; they are angry at all the controls. They are tired of being afraid. Our schools are closed, everyone is wearing a mask and people are still dying. And Donald Trump is gone so blaming everything on him is no longer an option. But wait, there’s Andrew Cuomo with the same arrogant New York persona that people hated about Donald Trump. He is the Democratic version of Donald Trump, just without the baggage of actual accomplishments. Wait, he did actually kill a lot of senior citizens, but as he said: “so they died, who cares?” Obviously, not Andrew Cuomo.

In any national election, the Governor of New York, the Governor of California, and the Mayor of New York are all considered potential candidates for the Presidency. That is because these are the type of executive positions that teach one how to govern effectively. Look at the background of our Presidents, starting with Eisenhower:

Eisenhower – General

Kennedy – Senator

Johnson – VP and Senate Majority Leader

Nixon – VP

Ford – Congressman (not elected)

Carter – Governor

Reagan – Governor

Bush – Director of the CIA

Clinton – Governor

Bush – Governor

Obama – Ran shoeshine booth at O’Hare International

Trump – Business Tycoon

Biden – VP – Senator

Normally, if one political party had all these positions, the party would be considered very likely to elect the next President. But today those three positions are held by Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom, and Bill DeBlasio, and all of them are stinking up the job. None of them have any realistic potential to be a candidate for President of the United States. What makes this worse, is that the last Presidential election proved that the DNC has no bench. If the best you can do is Joe Biden, then you’ve got nothing.

So, as you watch Cuomo deteriorate on his way out of office at a speed no one would have predicted just a couple of weeks ago, keep this in mind. This was the last best hope for the DNC. After Cuo Mo is No mo, so is the DNC.

TDM

I personally respect Ted Cruz. He is one of the brightest politicians in congress, a true constitutional lawyer. This makes his decision to fly his family off to Cancun while his neighbors were literally freezing beyond idiotic. I suspect Cruz was thinking more like a husband and a father when he did this. His focus was on helping his family. But the truth is he wasn’t thinking at all. He should have known that someone would see him in the airport and that this would go nuclear. Now we learn that he left his beloved poodle at home. Nice.

One of the problems with being self-righteous and arrogance is that it often backfires. Cruz ridiculed the Mayor of Austin for doing the same thing. This is the type of mistake that could literally end his career. It is at least going to make his next run for the Senate more challenging.

At least Ted Cruz realized he made a huge mistake, immediately flew back to Texas, and apologized. But at a time when we desperately need Ted Cruz, we did not need this self-inflicted mistake.

Republicans are set to roll the table in 2022. The Biden administration has made huge mistakes and is impressing no one other than Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper. Since no one else is impressed by either of these guys, he is impressing no one. When Kamala Harris does speak, she literally embarrasses herself. I am sure a lot of people, in both parties, are horrified at the thought that she is making Chief of State level calls with people like Putin. Gas prices are already spiking. The vaccine roll-out is a hot mess, made worse by decisions based more on political correctness than science. The problem is compounded by Biden desperately trying to blame everything on Trump when the opposite is more than obvious. Even CNN has started to turn on the Biden Administration. They still hate Trump, but they are not impressed with the Biden Administration and it shows.

A little common sense could have prevented all of this. It was really this simple. Give the vaccine first to people who want it and need it. Instead they offered it to 30 year old firefighters half of which said no thank you. The same is true of other first responders and teachers. They should have said: If you are over 65 and want a shot, here’s where to sign up. Problem solved, but common sense is always uncommon.

Andrew Cuomo is pouring gas on himself on his exit from national politics. Just imagine if Biden had appointed him to be the Attorney General. At one point he seemed to be a serious contender. Cuomo is rapidly self-destructing. Unless something changes, he is toast. But today the MSM is trying to distract from this by punching at Ted Cruz. That is the way things work. The MSM will always attack conservatives, it is just unfortunate when someone gives them ammunition.

Fortunately, I don’t think this story has legs. But this does limit the ability of Cruz to take well-deserved shots at Democrats in the future. While the MSM ignores hypocrisy by Democrats it never ignores it when done by Republicans, particularly conservative Republicans.

The bad news is that everything we feared about a Biden administration is coming true. The good news is that the problems are already obvious and the MSM is catching on quickly. They are also learning something else. While they routinely accused Trump of lying, primarily because he disagreed with them, Biden does tell lies and his are so bad they are laughable. Like when he said there was no vaccine available before he took office. He apparently forgot about getting a vaccine shot on national TV. Anderson Cooper did not notice, but his audience did.

Ted Cruz also caught a break, because with all the things going on in Texas, Biden is absent without leave. He literally called a lid and went home yesterday. At least Cruz was smart enough to go someplace warm. Biden finally had the following statement issued:

If in fact it’s concluded that I can go without creating a burden for the folks on the ground while they’re dealing with this crisis, I plan to go,’ he told reporters at the White House Friday. 

Biden said he’ll make the decision ‘probably next week.

When George W. Bush made similar comments following Katrina, the MSM went ballistic. Trump, of course, could never do anything right. We can be sure the MSM will cover for Biden, to the extent possible.  Things are so bad that when the White House, predictably was thrown a soft ball question designed to let them skewer Ted Cruz, they took a pass.

“We’re not spending any time, energy or breath analyzing Sen Cruz’s whereabouts or his group chat,”

This storm is bad, a lot of serious problems and no one is getting a free pass. Ted Cruz is back in town and trying to step up to the plate after stepping in it. The good news is he is fully off Cruz control. The bad news is that it was too little too late to prevent the inevitable crash. Cruz, at least for today, is probably glad that Joe Biden is President of the United States. Almost anything he does will be more impressive than this.

TDM

Democrats and their liberal supporters love hot weather. That allows them to crow self-righteously about global warming. They say climate change, but they always mean global warming. They don’t say global warming anymore because that is too easy to disprove. They say climate change, which is perfect because anything that happens proves their point. Except they always warn about things getting hot. They are consistently inconsistent.

Some of you may be wondering why Texas is being blasted with a winter storm and record cold temperatures, when the earth is heating up. Never let logic get between a liberal and climate change. So, they already figured how to blame these freezing temperatures on global warming (climate change). Specifically, warmer weather in the Artic is resulting in extremely cold weather in Texas. In case you think I am making this up, here is the article:

Heating Arctic may be to blame for snowstorms in Texas, scientists argue | Climate change | The Guardian

My favorite part of this article is the following paragraph:

This week, a blast of winter weather has reached deep into the heart of the US, causing several deaths and knocking out power for about 5 million people. Sleet and ice have battered Oklahoma and Arkansas, while many people in Texas have been left marooned, amid unsafe travel conditions, in homes with no electricity.

“The current conditions in Texas are historical, certainly generational,” said Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “But this can’t be hand-waved away as if it’s entirely natural. This is happening not in spite of climate change, it’s in part due to climate change.”

Of course, what is obviously true cannot be obviously true so one must hypothesize to prevent people from relying on their lying eyes. Most of us would assume that record cold is kind of contradictory to global warming. In this case the scientists admit that the Arctic is warming at a rate more than twice the global average, and that is disrupting long-established climatic systems. In other words, global warming is not actually global. This type of logic is required when the data is inconveniently inconsistent with the theory. Anything that hints the theory may have flaws is unacceptable, so the data must be altered to conform with the theory.

There is no consensus among scientists over the interaction between Arctic heat and cold weather further south – Francis calls the topic an “active area of research”. Global heating is causing warmer winters, and record cold temperatures are now being clearly outpaced by record hot temperatures, but the complex interplay of climatic conditions still requires further scrutiny, to the consternation of some and even mockery among others, including former US presidents. As a last resort, always blame Donald Trump.

Here is my prediction for 2021. Some places will be hotter than expected. Some places will be colder than expected. There will be hurricanes, tornados, and other storms. They will happen, but we don’t know where. We can’t predict any of this. But regardless of what happens, it will be because of climate change. And one thing is certain, Donald Trump is to blame because he isn’t standing up and saluting the non-existent science. If you do not understand that you are probably huddled together in a basket of freezing deplorables.

Oh, by the way, just because prior to the storm wind was supplying 42% of the power in Texas and after the storm wind was supplying only 8% of the power is no reason to think wind energy had any part of the problem. Otherwise, one might think that the Green New Deal needs rethinking, and we know that those who do not think in the first place are incapable of rethinking.

Rush Limbaugh died today. Some in the liberal left immediately lept to their feet in celebration. Most people, who had listened to Rush Limbaugh, did not. Regardless of whether one loved him or hated him, he was a major factor in American politics. Few people have ever had more impact during their lives.

Rush was also great at exposing liberal hatred and hypocrisy. He did so with his death.  Here is the headline from the Huffington Post:

Rush Limbaugh, Bigoted King Of Talk Radio, Dies At 70 | HuffPost

I will not quote from this, other than to point out that almost everything they accused Rush of doing is what they were and are doing themselves. Which is more racist, belittling someone because they are black or because of their white privilege?

I frankly did not listen to him very often. I simply did not have the time. But the times that I did listen showed me several things. He was world class at self-promotion. I suspect that was a pre-requisite for someone trying to build and maintain a massive audience. He sometimes said things that were outrageous. But he also said things that other people were saying, but not daring to repeat. He was also funny. When he used terms like “Commie-libs” and “Feminazi” he was not calling people to violence he was making fun of people. Some people are incapable of even recognizing a joke.  Russ sometimes went where angels fear to tread. In doing so, he made enemies. There was a reason he was called a Shock-Jock. Rush knew how to inflame passions.

There is perhaps one incident which best displays who Rush was and who were his enemies. After the famous Charlottesville incident, the the liberal left immediately began to spin a lie. They constantly said Trump initially refused to condemn white racists. Rush, quoting what Trump said and instantly corrected the record. But liberals desperately wanted to paint Trump with the white supremacist brush. It was only during the Impeachment Trial, when Trump’s attorneys played the entire video of what Trump said, that this lie was finally exposed to the extent that even the MSM gave up repeating it.

Rush did more than that he said groups like Antifa and BLM were the primary source of the violence. He was partly right. There were white supremacists there out for blood. The violence was a direct result of poor decisions by the local government and police. Loud, potentially violent extremist groups were clearly headed toward Charlottesville. Some were for tearing down the statute of Robert E. Lee, others were white supremacists who seized the day. Most of the time police are smart enough to keep these kind of groups separated. When that happens, they make a lot of noise but no one gets hurt. In Charlottesville authorities let the two groups mingle and the results were inevitable.

3 Lessons From Charlottesville After the Riot at the Capital | Time

Far-left and far-right protesters were allowed to park together, and to mix, mingle, and clash at the site together.

Limbaugh conspiracy: Democrats allowed Charlottesville terrorism for political gain | Media Matters for America

Here is what Rush actually said after Charlottesville:

The police were told to stand down, the police are saying, “no, no, no, we were retreating to go get our riot gear.” Well, why didn’t you show up in riot gear? If you retreated to get the riot gear, why didn’t you come back with the riot gear on if that’s where you went? They were ordered to stand down.

He thought that perhaps this was even planned,  because Democrats NEED a crisis. Whether it was planned or not, Democrats and their supporters lied about this constantly for the next three years. Just like they are now lying about the Capitol riots for the same reason.

Rush is now gone, but he will not be forgotten. It is important to remember that while he was famous and influential, he was also a human being. He was just as mortal as the rest of us. It is not for any of us here to judge him. I am only aware that none of us come close to meeting the standards required of almighty God.  The best we can do is acknowledge that and seek forgiveness. Those who are quickest to condemn others are often those who should invest in a mirror. My personal standard is this. If, at any point, I start feeling morally superior to someone else, that is only a sign of my own failings. It is always easier to see the problems in other people then in oneself. Self-righteous indignation is not a symptom of true righteousness it is rather evidence of the opposite.

Rest in peace Rush. You impacted this world more than most people. The simple fact that millions of people listened to you and treasured your advice should give your enemies pause. People like you are extremely rare. You will be missed.

TDM

Most people in California have driven through the Altamont Pass. It is on I-580 between Tracy and Pleasanton. When I think of the Altamont pass, I think of three things, high traffic, high winds, and huge windmills. This is one of the largest wind farms in the world. Actually, there are 25 wind farms in the Altamont pass. Most people consider this to be an eyesore. Ground Squirrels love it, l because the windfarm kills on average 4,700 bird each year. Others, not so much because many of the dead birds are Golden Eagles which are increasingly rare in California. The 70 or so golden eagles who take on the Altamont Pass each year seldom survive.

We are distracted by looking at all those windmills and wondering why most of them are not actually spinning. I mean after all, the wind is literally buffeting your car, so why don’t more windmills notice or care? I finally talked to someone who, unlike me, actually knows something about windmills. He explained that different wind turbines are designed for different wind speeds. If the wind blows too slow, the big guys just shrug and ignore it. But if it blows to fast that causes a serious problem for the little guys. Apparently, the blades are designed to stop working if the windspeed is too high.

Other than being as ugly as sin and killing birds, I thought wind farms were fairly benign. And it is nice to get all the cheap electricity. Texas, which is literally sitting on a ton of oil and natural gas bought into the green energy thingee and today 25% of the electricity is provided by wind turbines. And you thought all those loud mouths Texans were Neanderthals who didn’t care about climate change, didn’t you?

So, anyway, Texas is taking a stand for the environment and everyone applauded. Until Yesterday. Yesterday it got cold. Most of us think of Texas as a place that gets really hot. And that is true, most of the time. But it can also get really cold. Then, a lot of people learned something really important. Windmills don’t work very well when they get cold. Apparently, these are warm weather devices. So, when it got really cold, the windmills stopped working. Bingo, millions of people lost their electrical power.  It is a good thing this didn’t happen during the summer, because a lot of people might have got really hot and bothered by the lack of air conditioning. This happened when it was really cold, so air conditioning wasn’t a factor. Staying warm, however, became a real challenge. There are real fears that a lot of people died.

Just when liberals begin to think they can actually think, God seems to intervene and provide a different perspective on things. This usually takes multiple catastrophes because liberals are slow learners. But to everyone else the lesson here is obvious. Freezing to death because of the lack of green energy is remarkably similar to freezing to death because of the lack of fossil fuels.

This creates a huge problem for the “Green New Deal.” Most of us have gotten used to having electricity help keep us warm in winter and cool in summer.  While many were concerned because both solar plants and wind farms are ugly as sin, take up a lot of space and were killing birds, we were willing to put up with this because using green energy makes us feel warm and fuzzy. But freezing to death because you can’t heat your home is just not that appealing. Some people are already starting to ask questions and the Green New Deal people won’t like the answers.

No, we can’t actually generate all the electricity we need from wind and solar. Yes, this is a big deal. No, even the hot air generated in Washington, D.C. isn’t adequate to warm homes in Texas. God has spoken, again, and environmentally conscientious Texans, relying on that cheap, efficient, wind energy are green with envy at their neighbors who stupidly rely on fossil fuels. Actually, they are probably blue with envy, but I am color blind.

TDM

Nancy Pelosi just announced that there will be an independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the January 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol. It will be interesting to see who is on that commission. She has also tasked U.S. Armey Lieutenant General Russel Honore’ with assessing the security needs of the Capitol.  A lot of people expect this to be like the 9-11 commission. That commission published the report on July 22, 2004, nearly three years after the 9-11 attack itself.

It is likely that this report will be thorough and accurate. It is also likely to be published after everyone involved has moved on. Shortly after Pearl Harbor the First Roberts Commission was appointed by FDR to investigate and report the facts relating to the attack. It was headed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, which is why it was known as the Roberts Commission. This commission concluded that Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short were guilty of “dereliction of duty.” Anyone who has ever watched TORA, TORA, TORA knows that the story was far more complicated than this. It conveniently blamed everything on the two most obvious candidates and ignored the politicians and cabinet members who contributed greatly to this disaster.

But this is not 1942 and it is not even 2000. Things have changed. While any commission would be important, they will not be the only ones investigating. There are hours and hours of video taken during the event. We can be sure a lot of people are already pouring over that video.

We already  know some of the information was deliberately distorted in the failed attempt to impeach Donald Trump and blame everything on him. Democrats were desperate to charge Donald Trump with murder. One thing required for a murder charge is for someone to be killed. The original story was that U.S. Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick was struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. His body lay in honor at the Capitol Rotunda on February 3, conveniently just before the Trump impeachment trial. Sicknick was just the fifth person and the third Capitol Police officer to receive the distinction of lying-in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Everyone else was a government or military official. The previous two Capitol police officers were Jacob J. Chestnut Jr. and Detective John M Gibson. An armed assailant stormed past a U.S. Capitol checkpoint in July 1988. Both Chestnut and Gibson were shot and killed.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/what-happened-to-officer-sicknick/

It is not totally clear that officer Sicknick was even injured during this unfortunate event. This is certainly a tragedy for the family, and he deserves respect. But facts also matter. He was not rushed to the hospital directly from the Capitol. There are numerous reports that he returned to his police office. Hours after the siege ended, he texted his brother and said he had been “pepper sprayed twice” but was otherwise “in good shape.”

These inconvenient facts did not slow down the media from reporting that Sicknick had been struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. They desperately needed someone to die. The New York Post showed a video claiming to show when office Sicknick was struck by the fire extinguisher:

https://nypost.com/2021/01/11/video-shows-capitol-rioter-hit-officer-with-fire-extinguisher/

It is not clear anyone was seriously injured during this incident and Sicknick was nowhere in sight.

David Quintavalle was quickly identified as the villain after he was identified online by an internet troll. Fortunately for Quintavalle he could easily prove he wasn’t even in Washington, D.C., he was in Chicago. Before the record was corrected, Quintavalle got threatening phone calls and police had to station a car outside his home for protection. Facts really do matter:

https://abc7chicago.com/david-quintavalle-chicago-firefighter-capitol-riots-riot-arrests/9697516/

It turns out that the person who threw that fire extinguisher was a retired Pennsylvania firefighter.

https://www.policemag.com/590741/retired-pa-firefighter-arrested-over-assault-on-officers-with-extinguisher-not-s

Robert Sanford was charged with assault of a police officer, disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering the Capitol. It does not appear that he was charged with battery, which may mean he didn’t hurt anyone. There is no indication he or anyone else was charged with murder or manslaughter regarding Office Sicknick.

Democrats encouraged by Mitch McConnell are dreaming of Donald Trump being indicted with criminal charges. Some prosecutors may stupidly attempt that, but there is zero chance of Donald Trump being convicted of anything regarding the Capitol Riots. The “evidence” presented by the House Impeachment managers would be laughed out of court.  If this is even attempted, it is more likely to impact other people more than Donald Trump. Facts are stubborn things. We already know everything he said. There is video of this. But any investigation will include other people being asked embarrassing questions. I expect the DNC establishment to quietly and behind the scenes try to squash any attempt to charge Donald Trump with anything.

In the meantime, people are very concerned about Democrats succeeding in stifling free speech and restricting our freedoms. This has been compared to what happened in Germany under Hitler. Joe Biden will be a lousy President; he is proving that already. He is going to destroy the economy and do a lot of stupid and irresponsible things. But most of what he has done is illegal and unconstitutional. The courts can and will stop this nonsense.  Democrats may attempt to stifle free speech, but that cat is out of the bag. There are even reports that Parler is back online, but I have not been able to confirm that.

What I can confirm is that even the MSM has moved on. Donald Trump has provided almost zero copy for them, so they are desperate for something. Today the new target of opportunity is Governor Andrew Cuomo. He gave a press conference today that just poured more gas on the fire. The MSM must find outrage at someone over something, and Donald Trump is inconveniently unavailable. Another target is likely to be Gavin Newsom because he is about to be recalled.

The media needs bad news. They only report good news in a failed attempt to pretend their coverage is balanced. Democrats control the House, the Senate, the Presidency and all the blue states botching things. They are likely to be the primary source of bad news, regardless of what the MSM wants or thinks.

So, while the Biden administration will be just as bad as expected, they cannot fundamentally change this country. Raise gas taxes, absolutely. Make the economy even worse, without a doubt. Pass stupid laws and regulations, for sure. But much of what they plan for us will be stopped by the courts.

While the present is depressing, look a little further and there is a bright future ahead. A future where virtually everyone currently in power will be gone. Nancy Pelosi is 80 years old. Chuck Schumer is 70. Mitch McConnell is 79. Joe Biden is 78. Pat Leahy is 80. The only thing certain is that all the above are closer to the end of their careers than the beginning.  We do not know who will be in power four years from now, but we can certainly predict that at least some of these will be gone, either through retirement, illness, or death.

So yes, we have some troubling water, but the shore is still there, and it is not going away anytime soon.

TDM

In 1968 Doctor Spencer Silver, a scientist for 3M, developed a lousy glue. It was strong enough to stick to surfaces, and it didn’t leave a residue, but it couldn’t hold much weight. Few people paid attention. But one person, Art Fry, who also worked at 3M had noticed. In 1970 Art was looking for a bookmark for his church hymnal that would neither fall out or damage the hymnal. So, he took some of Dr. Silver’s glue, applied it along the edge of a piece of paper. Problem solved.

Art also took his new idea to work. He used it to leave a note on a work file. Soon other workers stopped by and asked for a “bookmark” for their office. 3M suspected this might have value, so they created the “Post-it-Note.” They did a test market in 1977 which was not very successful. However, they eventually figured this out and in 1979 Post-it-Note sales exploded. Today almost everyone has used some version of this product and some computer programs have “sticky notes” designed to work the same way as Post-it-note.”

The point being that sometimes when trying to do one thing, you discover something else more important. This is because whenever someone does a serious investigation, they discover things. Not necessarily what they were looking for at all. Synthetic dye was discovered accidentally while trying to manufacture quinine. William Henry Perkins was trying to figure this out. In one experience he produced a black gunky material. He decided to experience on that, In the course of doing his cleanup, he discovered that the rag he was using was now stained deep purple and it wouldn’t go away. Bingo, synthetic dye. Now there are many synthetic dyes, some even used on our food. But we discovered them by accident.

Democrats became hyper excited about the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riots. That is why they rushed through this sham investigation and attempted to impeach Donald Trump and remove him permanently from office. Their investigation was a pathetic joke and Trump was easily acquitted. But in the course of doing this a lot of people started asking questions. “What really happened here? Why was it so easy to overrun the Capitol? How do we prevent that from happening again?”

The investigation of Donald Trump is over, falling far short of expectations. But now there will be real, serious investigations of two subjects. Who is really at fault for the Capitol riots? Democrats failed to make the case that this was all Donald Trump’s fault, but they did a good job in explaining why this is important. There will also be a serious investigation into the 2020 election. This time not to change results, but to prevent this from happening again.

The first thing to be investigated will be the Capital riots. This may even end up with a 9-11 type of commission. Any serious investigation has the potential to hurt Democrats more than they can imagine. The Mayor of DC is a hard-core Democrat. She criticized Trump for using the National Guard to protect the White House. The Metropolitan Police report to her. The Capitol Police report to the Capital Police Board which reports to the Appropriations and Authorizing Committees of the House and the Senate. They don’t report to Donald Trump.

The Capitol Police board consists of three voting members, the Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives, the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol.

The Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives,  the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, and the U.S. Capitol Police Chief  all resigned following the riots.  The people demanding these resignations were Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. The Architect of the Capitol had been nominated by President Trump on December 9, 2019 and was confirmed on December 19, 2019. I am unaware of calls for his removal. The Capitol Police board appointed Yoganda Pittman to be the acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief.

Two days ago, members of the Capitol Police issued a vote of no confidence in the acting Chief of Police, her two assistant chiefs, three deputy chiefs and a captain in the Capitol building division.

And so, it begins. There is going to be some serious investigations and a lot of finger pointing. So far, Democrats have pointed all the fingers at Donald Trump. Well, Trump is gone, so all those fingers need to point somewhere else. Somewhere else is guaranteed to include a lot of Democrats.

This will take time, but the election and the capitol riots will be investigated.  We can be sure that the investigation into the election will move very rapidly because no one wants a repeat of this during the 2022 elections. In addition, many courts have ruled that the way the 2020 election was run was illegal and unconstitutional. While judges did not want to risk overturning an election, the illegal and unconstitutional things that happened will not be ignored. That includes California. On November 2, Judge Sarah Heckman ruled that the election guidelines produced by executive order by Governor Newsom were unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against him issuing new orders.

So, while Democrats shot at and missed Donald Trump, they simultaneously set off an explosion heard round the world. We are now entering the age of discovery and based on the facts already on display, this is going to be a huge problem for Democrats.

It is impossible to predict all the outcomes. Every serious investigation discovers things no one expected. But many of the people demanding answers should be more than a little concerned regarding the age of discovery.

TDM

Donald Trump, as predicted, was acquitted during the Senate trial. Sadly, but predictably, seven RINO Republicans voted to convict. They are Burr, Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse and Toomey. They just self-nominated to the RINO Hall of Shame. Clearly none of them actually listened to the presentations by the House Managers or Trump’s legal counsel. Everyone voted without regard to any of this.

This was followed by Mitch McConnell giving one of the most arrogant and self-righteous speeches in the history of the U.S. Senate. This is a classic example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. All McConnell should have said is the trial is over let’s get back to work. Instead, he decided to preach to the nation explaining why, after voting to acquit, he still thinks Trump is guilty as sin. It was condescending and stupid. What an absolute snake.

McConnell’s major argument is that Trump was making false allegations about a fraudulent election. McConnell clearly thought Trump should have just rolled over and pretended everything was normal. While there have been some wild conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines and double secret agents manipulating the election from a secret high-tech hideout somewhere in Europe, many of the accusations are actually very real. That is why 18 states joined Texas in that lawsuit to the Supreme Court. It is why several state legislatures voted to send alternative electors because of the obvious election violations during the 2020 election. McConnell was either oblivious to this or he didn’t care.

He ended up speaking to a rapidly dwindling TV audience. No one wanted to hear this nonsense. Democrats where not interested in hearing why someone voted to acquit Donald Trump even though he thought Trump was guilty as sin. Republicans didn’t want to hear a sermon telling them to ignore their lying eyes. I seriously believe that McConnell was preaching to a shrinking and soon empty choir. Neither the people who agreed with him or who disagreed with him were interested.

The bottom line is this. Trump was acquitted by the Senate. This was after a botched process that included tons of false and misleading evidence that no court would allow to be used in a legal proceeding. There are probably some people who still dream of Trump being charged with a crime, for something, but they are hopelessly delusional.

Following the acquittal Trump issued a statement, that is total class.

BREAKING: Trump Releases Statement Following Impeachment Acquittal (thegatewaypundit.com)

This makes his opponents look even worse than they did before. Trump has learned something important. He doesn’t need to take shots at his enemies anymore. They are engaged in a circular firing squad rapidly eliminating each other.  When people are saying and doing things this ridiculous the best response is to ignore them. Trump probably heard about McConnell’s speech, got back into his golf cart, and asked: “what did you get on that hole?” He is now focused on things far more important than anything said or done by Mitch McConnell.

There are a lot of Republican Senators guaranteed to be furious with McConnell. He will pay a high price for this. This won’t be obvious at first, because these people are very smart and very focused. But they will not ignore this and at some point, his day of reckoning will arrive. I predict no later than the fall of 2022, when Republicans take back the House and the Senate. When that happens there is zero chance Mitch McConnell will be the next majority leader.  Winners pick winner not whiners.

The trial is over. The House Impeachment case was demolished. It was so bad they tried, and failed, to call an additional witness. No one on either side of the trial wanted this to continue. That witness, by the way, would have helped Trump if anyone were listening. She reported that when McCarthy called him about the riot, Trump allegedly said those weren’t my people. She thought that was outrageous, but it is clear evidence that Trump did not think his people were doing this. Why would he think that if he had deliberately incited them? Of course, no one in the MSM, including on FOX News, picked up on this.

If you have noticed, the MSM has already moved on. They are reporting that Trump was acquitted. Some say that seven Republicans voted to convict but no one pretends that matters. This creates several huge problems for Democrats. What, after all, was the point if Trump just continued playing golf? The only thing accomplished was to waste time on another exercise in futility.

But they did a lot more than that. While the Senators were clearly not paying attention to the evidence, other people did. The Democratic case fell completely apart, and they know it. That is why they tried to call a witness. During the closing argument by the Trump attorney literally said the House Impeachment Managers were guilty of fraud. When they closed, they never even addressed this accusation. I guarantee you a lot of people noticed this.

They also noticed that nothing is being done to fix COVID 19, nothing is being done to fix the economy and some of the actions taken by Biden are already showing up in negative results. Today the news broadcasters spent little time on COVID. They were too busy reporting on the increase in gas prices. Don’t be surprised if rising gas prices replaces COVID in the daily reporting. And this time, it is impossible to blame it on Donald Trump.

Sometimes getting what you want comes at a very high price. Never truer than today, Democrats impeached and tried Donald Trump and it changed nothing. But accomplishing nothing came at a high cost. This put Democratic hypocrisy and incompetence on full public display. When Republicans promised to call Nancy Pelosi as a witness if they kept this up, Democrats ran for cover. Most people watching know who ran for cover and who didn’t.

TDM