Sometimes it is hard to tell if Trump is very quick to respond or if something was his plan all along. One prime example was when he announced that Matt Gaetz was his nominee for Attorney General. That shot was heard round the world, with massive opposition from both sides of the aisle. I have to admit when I first read this, I thought it was a joke. Matt Gaetz is a very bright and interesting, guy who knows how to draw attention. He also comes with a record amount of baggage. In addition, he had somehow managed to make himself hated almost equally by both parties.

Well, that didn’t last long, did it. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He was replaced in congress by a strong Republican you don’t know, and that was the point. Trump rather quickly withdrew his nomination and replaced him with Pam Bondi, who coasted through confirmation. Game, set, match.

There are certain RINO Republicans who can be counted on to always put their own self interests above the party and certainly well above supporting Donald Trump. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins top the list, with Mitch McConnell frequently joining in on the chorus. More recently, Senator Thom Tillis announced that he could not approve of Ed Martin for U.S. Attorney in D.C. He was fine with Martin, anywhere else, but not D.C. The reason was that Tillis still breaks out into a cold sweat at the thought of January 6^th, which genuinely scared a lot of people used to living in the protective Washington D.C. Capital bubble.

So Martin is withdrawn, and replaced by, wait for it, Judge Jeanine Pirro. Good luck with Murkowski and Collins objecting to a female, who is the daughter of Lebanese American parents! She isn’t exactly your traditional Anglo-Saxon white girl. Meantime Ed Martin is moving to the Department of Justice as the new Director of the Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General and Pardon Attorney. Nice! Whether intentional or not, Trump may have just pulled off the ultimate bait and switch, again.

Some people believed that Washington D.C. started out as a swamp and never changed; that is not exactly true. It actually was firm, dry riverbank, which slopes steadily upward from the Potomac, between Rock Creek and the Anacostia River.

The Myth That Washington Was a Swamp Will Never Go Away

If you want money from the federal government, this is the place to be. About 90% of people living in DC are Democrats, 8 percent are independents, and probably 2% admit, or perhaps pretend, to be Republicans. That is why liberals love dragging people they want to convict into a DC court room. It is why so many January 6^th defendants were convicted and given long prison sentences. It is why people charged with crimes, were acquitted despite mountains of evidence presented by Special Counsel John Durham. Durham, a highly respected prosecutor. He took years to develop airtight cases that were laughed out of court because the defendants were Democrats and the court was in Washington D.C. Predictably, this has become a haven for criminals and while violent crime statistics have been improving, they are still bad. Ed Martin was actually doing a good job at fixing that, which is probably another reason why Democrats and RINOs were so determined to see him go.

Welcome to Judge Jeanine, famous for being on THE FIVE, who is only 5’ 4” and not exactly famous for backing off. She was a determined prosecutor, a judge and finally,  District Attorney of Westchester Country. She is not exactly afraid to state her opinions and she is very, very bright. Liberal Democrats are throwing up and wishing they had Ed Martin back. RINO Republicans are wondering how they can oppose this nomination and have any change of winning re-election. Conservatives are having trouble suppressing the giggles. When I told my wife who Trump nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for DC, she literally laughed out loud and asked, “Are you serious?”

Here’s the even better news. If the Senate doesn’t like her, Trump will just withdraw the nomination and pick someone else. Has anyone seen Matt Gaetz lately.

TDM

It has been interesting to see Kash Patel transforming the FBI. In his recent hearing before congress, several Democratic Senators chose to tell deliberate lies and distortions about him and tried to prevent him from responding.

Unlike RINO Republicans, Patel did not back down an inch. Instead, he stood his ground and pointed out, correctly, that those Democratic Senators had zero facts to support their allegations.

Since taking over as Director of the FBI, Patel has been busy conducting investigations and prosecuting serious criminals like human traffickers. The FBI, in cooperation with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York just announced a formal investigation into serious allegations against Leticia James. If any of the allegations described in media reports are accurate, she could be looking at some very serious jail time.

More importantly, Patel has zero interest in photo-ops. He is not going to prosecute someone for political reasons. But he is going to conduct serious investigations, when there is real evidence, and if crimes have been committed, the FBI will assist U.S. Attorney’s in developing cases for trial with the intent of obtaining convictions.

In addition, Patel is cleaning house at the FBI. Agents who participated in the political weaponization projects during the Biden administration are quickly being phased out. Odds are there are a lot of honest FBI agents who were abhorred and probably embarrassed by the overt politicization of the FBI at the expense of pursuing real criminals doing real crimes.

But, as always, the proof is in the pudding. If you listen to Democrats and their fawning supporters in the MSM, Republicans are hopelessly corrupt. If you listen to Republicans and their fawning supporters in conservative media, then Democrats are hopelessly corrupt. One suspects that there is a significant amount of corruption in both parties, but since Democrats had unchecked power for so long, odds are they are leading the field.

In addition, Democrats have been telling so many obvious lies for so long that it is hard to take them seriously on any issue. Ironically, if Trump were truly corrupt, Democrats would shoulder much of the blame because they have been so careless in tossing around frivolous charges that few would believe them if he actually did something truly awful.

All we know for sure is that, as of now, Republicans are acting as the only adults in the room while Democrats are resorting to outrageous lies and misinformation focusing on photo ops. They have gotten away with this for so long because of the willingness of the MSM to ignore the obvious that they appear to have forgotten how to even pretend to be adults. In some ways this is like the spoiled child whose parents made little or no effort to teach responsible behavior. When children like this try to get away with this childish behavior in the real world, they are often shocked to learn that this doesn’t work outside of the liberal parenting bubble in which they were raised.

Perhaps the real Kash crop will be forcing Democrats to live in the real world, with real consequences and equal justice under the law, a concept they don’t begin to understand. But when people like Leticia James learn about this the hard way, with the whole world watching, it won’t take long before everyone starts to understand. When that happens, the few remaining smart adults in the Democratic Party are likely to seize the day. Don’t be surprised if some of them turn on those in power who naively think they are above the law. In addition, don’t be shocked to see a long line forming at the “let’s make a deal” counter, because the first people to figure this out have a lot better chance of surviving or at least avoiding long prison sentences.

Once again Kash Patel has demonstrated that he is a serious man in a serious position. He does not need to hyperventilate trying to score political points without bothering to pass Go or collect $200. He just needs to do his job, the way it was always intended to be done. To do proper investigations and to follow the facts and the law regardless of where that leads. What a remarkable concept. It is about time.

TDM

We lived in Folsom for many years and I still own an insurance agency located there. Contrary to what people think, Folsom is a pretty conservative place. Most of California is pretty conservative it is just that politics are dominated by major metropolitan areas totally out of touch with the majority of the state.

This it is why it was interesting to learn that Bernie Sanders and AOC showed up at a rally in Folsom and apparently drew a large crowd of about 30,000. Bernie Sanders described Folsom as a pretty rural area, which would be quite a surprise to people who actually live there. In 2023 Folsom had over 84,000 residents and the city has grown significantly since then. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

In addition, Folsom is a little over 18 miles from Sacramento. You know, Sacramento the Capital of California. There are a little over 2.2 million people living in the Sacramento metropolitan area. This is hardly what one would describe as “rural.”

Folsom is famous for Folsom prison, because of Johnny Cash’s hit song, “Folsom Prison Blues.” One would think that Johnny Cash spent time as a prisoner in Folsom prison, but  he was never there until years after he wrote his song and that was to perform a concert for the prisoners.

By the way, the lyrics of the song are ridiculous. “When I was just a baby my mama told me “Son, always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns” But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry.”

Reno is in Nevada. Folsom is a California State prison. If you shoot someone in Reno, Nevada you don’t end up in Folsom, California. In addition, I have toured Folsom, Prison and while there are train tracks in Folsom, I doubt seriously one could hear a train whistle in Folsom Prison. Interestingly, you can’t actually see much of Folsom Prison from Folsom because it is located in a valley. Folsom Prison isn’t even technically in Folsom, it is in Repressa. Of course Repressa is in the middle of Folsom.

We know a lot of people in Folsom, so we asked them about the big rally. They just laughed and said people were bused in from other places and many of them were paid to be there.

In a way, Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the entire Democrat Party can be correctly described as the Folsom Prism Blues. A prism was designed to break up light into a spectrum allowing for spectral analysis. This allowed one to see precisely what made up an object. In other words, looking through a prism can provide a different perspective of things.

That is exactly what is happening to the Democrat Party. When we see the Democrat Party today, we see people like Bernie Sanders and AOC. We see leading Democrats flying to El Salvador, at taxpayer expense, hanging out by the pool in luxury resorts,  to demand due process for a MS13 Gang Banger. We see lie after lie after lie. Trump is routinely compared to Hitler. Yet Democrats have no strategy, other than to give every illegal alien due process, allow transgender men to participate in women’s sports, and take every action that has the potential to stop Trump from governing, while offering absolutely no plan of their own. They confuse volume with substance and hope no one notices, but it is increasingly easy to see who they are, what they really stand for, and why they should never ever be trusted with political power again.

TDM

The deep state is being exposed. At the highest Levels of our military, there clearly is and has been an entire establishment ready, willing and able to ignore one of the most fundamental elements of preserving democracy. “The Commander in Chief is the President of the United States, and the military reports to him, not vice versa.” There was a reason this was built into our constitution.

 https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-ii/clauses/345

“The Commander in Chief Clause of Article II, Section 2 provides that ‘The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.’” 

This article reminds us that the reasons for this clause can be found in the Declaration of Independence. One of the major complaints against King George was the following: “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”

One of the whole points of separating from England was in recognition of the extreme danger of a military that did not feel restrained by the duly elected representatives in government.

According to History.com, following are some of the more recent examples of why we should all fear a military that considers itself superior to an elected government.

https://www.history.com/articles/5-famous-coups

Napolean turned France from a government run by an elected legislature to a dictatorship.

General Franco organized a coup to overthrow the elected government of Spain. While that government was definitely leftist, Franco turned it into a dictatorship.

Muammar al-Qaddafi overthrew King Idris in Libya. He ruled as a dictator until he was killed during the 2011 “Arab Spring” uprising.

Idi Amin led a coup that overthrew the government of President Milton Obote, who had led Uganda to independence from Britain in 1962. He was a brutal dictator until overthrown himself eight year later. It is estimated that his regime killed 300,000 perceived political opponents.

Augusto Pinochet was helped by the CIA to overthrow the government of Chile. While the U.S. was rightly concerned about the Marxist government led by President Salvador Allende, Pinochet turned Chile into a dictatorship that he ruled for 17 years.

The point being that there are always leaders in the military who think they can make better decisions about who should run the country than naïve and ill-informed civilians. History shows us that when the military overthrows a government, the result is seldom an improvement and frequently leads to a brutal dictatorship. This was beyond obvious to our founding fathers who wrote our constitution.

Today there is strong evidence that a deep state does truly exist in both our military and our government agencies. These unelected military leaders and bureaucrats believe they are legitimate government and they have not and will not hesitate to stop a President of the United States from implementing his agenda, even if supported by a majority of the population if it conflicts with their agenda. In some cases, they assume the President of the United States is just the temporary occupant of the Oval office while they are destined to remain in power permanently. President Donald Trump has challenged them in a way no previous President even considered. This has included appointing Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of the Defense for the simple reason that Hegseth is not and never has been a member of the deep state.

By the way, this also explains why liberal unelected activist judges feel that they have the power to obstruct a President of the United States.

The good news is that Trump appears to be unshakeable in his mission to root out the deep state and restore the democratic principles upon which this country was started. While some troll Democrats and the MSM by pretending Trump is planning on running for re-election in 2028, the reality is that this would be extremely unlikely. In any event, he will certainly be replaced at some point by another duly elected President, a duly elected House and a duly elected Senate. At some point all those activist judges will be replaced by another President, who hopefully will hold to the traditional standard of appointing judges who follow the rule of law, not try to create it.

The best news is that contrary to what some people believe possible, the deep state appears to be, finally, going off the deep end. Hopefully to be replaced by real Americans who embrace our constitution rather than secretly conspire to ignore and circumvent it.

TDM

We USED to live in California. We actually loved California, the people, the weather, the endless opportunities to visit places like Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Monterey and years ago, San Francisco. Then things started to change. California became increasingly run by public sector unions. No candidate could win a statewide election without solid support from the public sector unions.

When we first moved to California, we were shocked to discover they never bothered to check our ID while voting. At first, they just asked where we lived and handed us a ballot. Later, we got a ballot in the mail and an envelope. We could mail the envelope or take it to a voting center. We did that once, offered to show our ID, but they didn’t care and just pointed to the ballot box.

California also issued drivers’ licenses to almost anyone. There was no need to provide proof of citizenship or even legal residence. We later learned that California never bothered to reconcile voting records with national databases. As a result, an illegal alien could get a drivers license and he or she would be automatically given voter registration documents.

(This has changed because people using California Drivers’ licenses were at risk of not being allowed to fly on a commercial airliner. Now California issues a “real id” drivers’ license, in addition to the, I guess, “not real id” California drivers’ license.

In addition, ballot harvesting is allowed in California. The result is that one would have to be incredibly naïve to expect anyone other than a liberal Democrat endorsed by the public sector unions to ever come close to winning a statewide election. California just elected Adam Schiff to be a Senator. I rest my case.

Yesterday, April 22, 2025, was Earth Day. Predictably more than 50 California elected officials signed a letter urging lawmakers to make oil and gas companies bear the cost of climate change. They want to create the California Polluters Pay Superfund that would assess a fee on large oil and gas companies to pay for programs to mitigate damage from climate change.

This Earth Day, elected officials promote CA bill to ‘make polluters pay’

The current average cost of gas in California today is $4.84 per gallon. Here in Hillsborough County Florida it is $3.12 per gallon. At Sam’s Club it is $2.99 per gallon. California plans to require all new cars, trucks and SUVS to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035. They are having challenges with this since hating Tesla because of Elon Musk isn’t the best way to encourage people to buy electric cars.

I personally know some very brilliant scientists. When they are asked if CO2 emissions are really causing climate change, they have difficulty suppressing the giggles. They are quick to point out that there is zero science behind this and a ton of real science, ignored, showing the exact opposite.

So California, which already has the highest gas prices in the nation, wants to increase those prices significantly by fining oil and gas companies. Brilliant! They also want to force people to buy electric vehicles, as long as Tesla does not make them. Incredibly, this is far from the dumbest thing proposed if not endorsed by California politicians. They are currently borrowing money to reimburse Medicare for payments to illegal aliens.

There is more, but what would be the point. I was recently in California testifying as an expert witness at a trial in Hayword. This reminded me of a lot of things I loved about California. Then I had to fill up the car with gas. I was surrounded by other people filling up their cars with gas. I wondered what idiot thought that making gas prices even higher was a great idea. That night I watched Govern Gavin Newsom interviewed on a local TV broadcast. Asked and answered.

I am now back in Florida. We have lots of friends here. Most of them moved here from other states, run by Democrats. Imagine that!

TDM

I have occasionally played Blackjack at a casino in either Las Vegas or Reno. On several occasions I witnessed the following. There is a guy, who had been playing responsibly all evening, suddenly double down on his bet. Then when he lost, he would double down again. This continued until he finally lost his stash, got up with a disgusted look on his face and when home or wherever.

This is exactly what has happened to the Democratic Party. They went double down on beating Donald Trump. They were so obsessed with hating Trump that they overlooked the fact that Joe Biden was a shell of a human being pretending to be President. Then, when forced to deal with the reality of Joe Biden, they doubled down again on Kamala Harris. The same Kamala Harris who came in dead last in the Democratic Primaries. The results were predictable. The hated Donald Trump was re-elected President of the United States, Joe Biden was dumped on the trash heap of history and Kamala Harris is just starting to sober up, although few notice any significant difference.

One would think that Democrats would have figured out by now, that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a terminal disease. But that would be wrong. They still live in a delusional world of their own creation where if Trump is for it rational people must be against it. That is how they made the absurd decision to justify transgender men competing in woman’s sports. They can’t grasp the concept about how people feel when a man, who couldn’t finish in the top 50 in competition with other men, is suddenly a world champ because he suddenly realizes he “feels” female.

They can’t understand why letting nearly anyone waltz across our southern border, whether invited or not, in or in some cases flown in by the Biden administration, is not all that popular. They don’t understand why an  MS13 gang member, here illegally, ordered deported, who happened to have beaten up his wife, is not exactly a case study in due process. What, exactly, due process is due someone who is not even here legally. Do all of the people living here illegally get to have their day in court, to give them the due process. Meanwhile, people here legally are ignored if not insulted.

They are doubling down by stating it is ok to kill Trump because, well, he is Trump. They are doubling down by standing up for the right to support a terrorist group like Hamas while protesting and harassing fellow students if they happen to be Jewish.

They are doubling down on Bernie Sanders, who is spending $200,000 flying around on private jets to explain why rich people should never be in charge. They are doubling down by choosing AOC and Kamala Harris as the top two contenders for the Democratic ticket in four years.

Thinks are so bad that even CNN has noticed. No one bothers to watch Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or any of the other wantabe comedians who could only get a laugh by trashing Trump to a crowd full of Kool Aid drinkers. Earth to the late-night clowns, they are running out of Kool Aid and people still willing to drink it.

Now there are credible reports that the corporate media buyers are running away from the MSM toward Fox News. They may be liberals, but they are not stupid. Running great ads on a channel no one watches isn’t that good for sales.

They are doubling down again, and again, and again. Each time the losses gets bigger and bigger. Yet they keep trying the same thing, because they are the very last people on this planet to recognize a losing hand. That is why they are very likely to keep doubling down until they are finally out.

TDM

Recently we have witnessed the sad reality of an extremely rich Senator, who own multiple homes and a former bartender whipping up crowds to fight the oligarchs. Bernie Sanders did not earn a single paycheck until he was 40 years old. The following article outlines his personal history. While I have not personally verified any of this, there is no evidence any of this has been disputed:

Bernie Sanders Didn’t Make a Paycheck Until He Turned 40 – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics

He was accompanied by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). Her proposals are for Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, a jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal,  and Abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She has introduced 0 bills that became law. She has become very good at gaining media attention.

In 2020, Democrats turned to Joe Biden only when it became obvious that Bernie Sanders would be the only alternative. Even left-wing liberal Democrats know that while Bernie is great a generating vocal support, most of his ideas are rejected by the average Democrat.

Bernie Sanders is not actually a Democrat; he is an independent who votes with the Democratic caucus. He is 83 years old. He is a Jewish Senator who is not particularly religious.  It is ironic that few ever mentioned that if elected he would have been the first Jewish President of the United States. Anyone ever wonder how those people protesting on behalf of Hamas at places like Columbia would respond to that?

In the meantime, Donald Trump has shut down the border, is deporting criminal illegal aliens, is drilling for oil, and is working to end the unfair trade practices inflicted on the U.S. for centuries. All of these things are actually popular with a lot of people. So while Bernie and AOC are doing great at getting people outraged, the reality is that Democrats are missing the point.

Now, when it is so obvious that not only the Democrat Party but also the MSM was flat out lying to everyone about Joe Biden, there is a serious truth divide in this country. We may not be sure who is telling the truth, but we sure know who has been lying to us.

Democrats have been accusing Trump of being a serial liar since day one. Every day we were told how he cannot speak about anything without lying. At the same time, they ignored the lies told by and about Joe Biden. Now Donald Trump can be liberal with the facts, particularly when in his frequent self-aggrandization mode. But the reality is that it seems like every politician does this to some extent. Trump is just better at it. He is also better at telling the truth. Many of his statements, dismissed as lies, have turned out to be extremely accurate.

We live in a world with some serious challenges, and we need to deal with these issues or we are at risk of losing everything. We desperately need to shut down our border and start deporting illegal aliens. If we do not stop the one-sided tariffs against American goods, we risk losing our industrial base permanently. If we do not stop aggression by Russia and China, we risk another worldwide conflict. And, if we allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon, they will threaten the entire world with the catastrophe of a nuclear war. If we do not reform our Department of Justice to return to the rule of law, we risk the dictatorship falsely attributed to Donald Trump by people with TDS.

Perhaps the most serious problem is that our MSM and leaders in the Democratic Party continue to insist on telling ridiculous lies accompanied by major distortion of facts and evidence. Even worse, no one in the MSM seems to be ready, willing and able to hold them accountable.  But there is good news. The liars are self-identifying. Senator Van Hollen went to El Salvador to rescue St. Garcia. Donald Trump followed up this photo op with one of his own, showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s MS13 gang tattoos on his fingers. His wife was smart enough to cover this up when she posted the loving photo of him. The result is the poster child for abuse of power by Donald Trump by deporting a Maryland father is actually a MS13 gang member with a bad record. Nice! Compelling. Keep up the good work.

Democrats are better at self-destruction than Republicans are at waging media wars. When the enemy is destroying itself, shut up and enjoy the ride.

TDM

Donald Trump has always been a fan of tariffs. He is absolutely right when he says American have been subject to extremely unfair tariffs and other taxes world-wide. Most countries have already contacted the U.S. and are negotiating far more favorable deals. The major exception is China, which is now engaged in a who can tariff more battle.

When evaluating this, it is important to remember how the U.S. got involved in World War II, or more specifically why did Japan attack us. One of the major factors that resulted in Pearl Harbor was the decision by Roosevelt to ban iron, steel and oil exports to Japan, jointly with the United Kingdom and Australia.

The 1 Reason Imperial Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor: Oil. – The National Interest

“Finally, after Japanese forces invaded French Indochina (modern Vietnam and Cambodia) in June 1941, President Roosevelt implemented a ban on iron, steel and oil exports to Japan jointly with Australia and the United Kingdom.”

The United States operated under the assumption that Japan would never dare attack us. They were wrong. Japan knew that the United States was far superior in every way. But they felt they had no other choice or face economic ruin. More importantly, if Japan backed down, it would lose face.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a very short-term success for Japan. However, eventually, it resulted in total defeat. It is hard to imagine how Roosevelt could have done anything to prevent this conflict. Japan had occupied China and French Indochina, a situation the United States could neither ignore nor accept.

Much like the oil embargo in 1941, if China is isolated and unable to sell its products anywhere, it may consider itself in a situation similar to Japan in 1941. Most people in Japan did not want to go to war with the U.S. or anyone else, but the government was extremely powerful and squashed any attempt at rebellion. This is very similar to how the communist regime controls China.

We better all hope and pray that the Trump administration finds a way to negotiate a reasonable compromise with China. While the attack on Pearl Harbor was truly horrible, it does not compare to the amount of damage China could do to the United States. The U.S. has the most powerful military in the world and China knows that. But Japan knew that in 1941 and they still attacked us.

While it is obviously true that China has exploited extremely unfair trade practices which allowed it to dominate world trade everywhere, including the U.S., it is also true that to some extent we encouraged them to do exactly that. This is also remarkably similar to what happened to Japan. The U.S. basically demanded it open its doors to the world. Regarding China, we strongly encouraged them to make products cheaply and sell them to the U.S. and the rest of the world. It is easy to understand why they may be absolutely furious and filled with an anger that is extremely dangerous, both to them and the U.S.

The good news is that Trump is offering a way out with China, which does not require them to lose face. He is publicly saying that he hopes for a fair and reasonable settlement with China. In the meantime, the Chinese government is overextended and extremely vulnerable. If it cannot sell its goods to the U.S. anymore it will be a crippling blow to an already overstretched economy. Some very smart people even predict that the entire economy could collapse. That is remarkably similar to the crisis Japan faced in 1941.

This is not 1941 and one hopes and prays that this will be resolved quickly without the need for military conflict. We are extremely fortunate that the President of the United States is Donald Trump and not the pool of idiots messing things up behind the scenes, hiding behind the illusion of Joe Biden. It is also good that, so far, regarding China, Trump has a lot of bi-partisan support. Hopefully, Trump will offer China a solution it can accept, without suffering economic decline and more importantly without losing face. He at least hints that this is his goal.

While this is a frightening situation, if not Trump, then who? If not now, then when? Making no decision on an unacceptable situation or just kicking the can down the road seldom works and, in this case, doing nothing might just be the most dangerous option.

TDM

There is a ton of misinformation out there about Social Security. One of the most common is that Republicans want to cut Social Security while Democrats want to preserve it. That is a lie. In reality, Social Security is the third rail of politics and no political party would even consider cutting benefits.

Social Security had a huge surplus that was developed during the 1990s. The reason was that the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 paid far more in social security taxes than what was necessary to pay benefits due their parents. It was simple, there were a lot more babies than retirees for several years. Unfortunately, both Republican and Democratic Presidents spent that surplus. It started with George H. W. Bush and continued at an accelerated pace through both terms of Bill Clinton. The Social Security surplus was spent to pretend to balance the budget, with the result of George W. Bush entering office only to be confronted with a huge, unnecessary, Social Security deficit.

Sadly, this has been repeated on an annual basis. Democrats routinely claim, falsely, that Republicans want to cut Social Security. The only President who actually cut Social Security Benefits was Barack Obama, who blocked cola (Cost of Living) adjustments to social security. That resulted in a real decrease in the value of social security benefits received. Something no one in the MSM noticed or bothered to report.

We now have less people working and more people drawing social security. Because George H.W. Bush and later Bill Clinton ignored the reality of this and spent the social security surplus we all have to live with this reality. Fewer people working are supporting more people retired. This is compounded by Social Security benefits being paid to people who are dead, or who are not eligible because they are not in the country legally. It is made worse by scam artists highly skilled at stealing benefits from legitimate recipients.

Those who paid social security taxes during their entire working career have earned those benefits. Yet, the system will go insolvent unless something changes. The most urgent change is to stop paying benefits to dead people or anyone else who has not earned those benefits. Then and only then can we hope to set aside the funds necessary to reimburse whose who paid for those benefits.

But we must also be honest about something. The government is plum awful at setting aside the necessary funds to pay for benefits promised. If an insurance company did this, they would be prosecuted. Yet every attempt to privatize Social Security has been blocked by the same people who refuse to properly fund the program. People should be allowed to choose between allocating funds to a private company, responsible to protect assets, or the federal government which protects absolutely nothing. Private companies should be held to the highest possible standards, something the federal government would never even consider.

The important thing here is to allow for private companies to compete with the federal government and to resist allowing total control to the same people who have proven themselves totally incapable of acting responsibly. If baby boomers had been allowed to invest their social security taxes in a private insurance company, they would now have more retirement income and those private insurance company would have been more subject to more federal oversight, by far, than the federal government itself.

We all want and need social security. The real question is who is more likely to provide that security, and more importantly, who absolutely cannot be trusted to do that?

TDM

Democrats are making a huge mistake. They are so focused on Trump Derangement Syndrome that they are missing the obvious. Most important they have lost the ability to distinguish between friends and enemies.

The most recent example was when so many Democrats and RINOs hyperventilated because of confidential information shared on a signal application that accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg. Democrats believed that most people will be outraged by the carelessness of the people using this application. It was stupid and careless. But there is no evidence that this compromised any ongoing mission and not even a hint that someone was injured or killed as a result of this mistake. More importantly, the bad actor here is Jeffrey Goldberg who make it extremely clear why he should never be allowed access to any confidential information and certainly not classified information. If he had an ounce of integrity, he would have immediately signed off the call, notified the administrator that there was a problem, and deleted his file. Instead, he literally took screen shots and eventually published everything he said was too sacred and dangerous to share. That is definitely true. This type of information should never have been shared with him.

They are making an even bigger mistake regarding DOGE. Once again, the problem is that Democrats are terrible at enemy identification. They are favoring rights of criminals over rights of victims. They are demanding discrimination for the extreme minority against the overwhelming majority. Most important, they are failing to distinguish between parasites and partners.

Everyone I know personally has complained recently about some attempted scam. If you have a cell phone or an email account or a land line phone, someone has attempted to scam you. At first it was emails, pretending to be from someone like your bank or even social security. If you didn’t respond immediately, you risked losing your benefits. Recently emails showed up demanding immediate payment to prevent being fined for toll road violations.

There have also been scams, sent to people in the form of text messages. And there are phones calls from people pretending to be someone else. The one thing these all have in common is that they are trying to steal your information so they can steal your money.

During a recent interview by Brett Baier with key DOGE personalities it was stunning to learn that contrary to the myth that DOGE is run by Elon Musk and a bunch of high school students, the people who actually showed up were extremely accomplished business personal, some of whom are billionaires, donating their time and skill because they believe this is essential work.

it was explained that 40% of calls to Social Security requesting a change of address for payments are fraudulent. While Democrats are screaming that we need to protect Grandma living in the wilds of Idaho from having her social security cancelled because she can’t show up in person, the much bigger threat is the human scum ready, willing and able to impersonate Grandma and steal all her money.

It is this simple, if we take the time and effort to verify that the people receiving benefits are genuine, we protect the people receiving benefits who are genuine. If don’t do that the thieves will swarm in and steal the money without any regard to the impact on those legitimately entitled. The same is true regarding elections. If we limit elections to legitimate voters who can only vote once, that does not jeopardize election integrity, it confirms it.

Enemy identification. Democrats zero, Republicans 100%. Any questions?

TDM