Month: December 2024

President Trump’s vision behind appointing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The mission of DOGE is to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

What follows are some of the things that DOGE will be able to cut without as much as a whimper from anybody.
Elon Musk believes they can cut a minimum of $2 trillion in wasteful spending, some recent examples of which include:
* $1.7 billion to maintain 77,000 empty federal buildings
* $250 million to construct border walls in the Middle East and North Africa
* $168 million to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation
* $477,121 to make lab monkeys transgender
* $100,000 to study if tequila or gin makes sunfish more aggressive
* $1 million to study if cocaine makes Japanese quail more promiscuous
* $6 million to boost Egyptian tourism
* $2.1 million to encourage Ethiopians to wear shoes
* $1.3 million to verify that hearing bad news decreases happiness levels
* $750,000 to study if the moon landing line was “One small step for Man” or “One small step for ‘a’ man” (the study was inconclusive)

The above could well be a part of a comedy routine except they are so far out that they are not funny … laughable, but not funny! To me these cuts are all slam dunks!
12/31/24

After witnessing the shenanigans the Democrats used in covering up Joe Biden’s mental decline for years, do the Democrats bear any responsibility for Biden’s recent actions?
On 12/23/24 President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly all the inmates on federal death row, a move that comes not even two weeks after he went through with the “largest single-day grant of clemency” in American history.
The men being resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole are convicted of various murderous acts against one person or multiple. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates.
Do those Democrats who covered up Biden’s apparent early dementia bear any responsibility for what Joe Biden did here?

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo said the following:
“It’s important, as a former prosecutor myself, I think it’s important to talk about the victims here. Lexis Roberts went on a camping trip with her mother and Thomas Sanders. Thomas Sanders, on the way back, took her mother out and executed her in cold blood in front of Lexis, then slit Lexis Roberts’ throat and let her die in the woods. This is someone that Joe Biden, on the eve of Christmas, decided to commute his sentence. This is nuts. This is totally nuts. And so, the outrage is real, it’s justified. And again, Joe Biden, on his way out, is again cementing his status as one of our worst presidents.”

Do those Democrats who covered up Biden’s apparent early dementia bear any responsibility for what Biden did with the sentence of Thomas Sanders?
IMO, Yes!

Surveillance video from the 2017 double murder shows Brandon Council walking into CresCom Bank in Conway, South Carolina, approach Major and speak to her briefly before pulling out a gun and shooting her multiple times.
He then leapt over the counter and opened fire on 36-year-old teller Kathryn Skeen, killing her as well.
Do the Democrats who knowingly ignored Biden’s early dementia bear any responsibility for what Biden did with the sentence of Brandon Council?
IMO, yes!

Among the convicts Biden has spared from the accountability sought by judges and juries is Jorge Avila-Torrez, a “serial killer of the highest degree” who kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered two little girls, Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in 2005. The beneficiary of Biden’s commutation not only subjected the girls to nightmarish sexual torture but stabbed them repeatedly — Hobbs 20 times, including in her eyes, and Tobias 11 times.
Avila-Torrez also murdered 20-year-old U.S. Navy Petty Officer Amanda Jean Snell in 2009 and raped and nearly killed another woman in 2009.

Do the Democrats who knowingly ignored Biden’s early dementia bear any responsibility for what Biden did with the sentence of Jorge Avila-Torrez?
IMO, Yes!

IMO. In a civilized society those who covered for Biden’s early dementia certainly should bear responsibility for all of his recent actions!
12/30/24

Jaci Obayon was devastated. She was an immigration attorney who had just lost an asylum case that she was convinced that she was going to win, and she then suffered an ectopic pregnancy miscarriage.
From Epoch Bright:
“My hair fell out from the shot that they gave me to terminate the pregnancy,” Ohayon said. “I was just so heartbroken and so devastated. My hair was coming out in my hands, and I was bleeding heavily. I felt like my whole world was breaking apart. I just didn’t know what to do.”
In a bid to heal and figure it all out, Ohayon planned a family trip to the Dominican Republic with her husband and two children. That’s when they met a Haitian boy named Jonas.
“It was a really incredible experience. I went down grieving the loss of my baby, and I still got to love another child. He’s not my baby, but I get to love him,” she said.

Not long after arriving on an island in the Dominican Republic, the family was having pizza at a beach café when a teenage boy caught their attention. He walked past the family’s table, so they invited him to sit down and share their lunch. He didn’t understand their Spanish, so they tried French, and their new friend understood everything. It turned out he was from Haiti, and his name was Jonas.
Over the next month, the family spent time with Jonas, developing firm friendships.”

To make a long story short, Jaci Obayon aided by a missionary friend with a church in the Dominican Republic that had connections to Haiti, began the lengthy process of applying for the boy’s passport and visa. Ultimately, Ohayon bought Jonas’s plane ticket. He arrived in the USA nervous and scared.
That first weekend, Jonas, unaccustomed to acceptance and often chased away throughout his life, simply chose to hide.
“He would hide behind the curtain; he would hide under the table,” Ohayon said.
Today, after six years in the United States, the once painfully self-conscious teen has blossomed.

Now 20 and in his second year of college, Jonas speaks, reads, and writes English fluently.
“He’s working so hard,” Ohayon says, beaming with love and pride. “If he can get his college degree and ends up getting the career he’s going for, then he gets to change his life and his family’s life.”
“It’s the American dream that I automatically get access to because I was born in the United States. I didn’t choose to be born there; I just was. So I get access to this dream that people in other countries dream about or run towards or flee to, based on where they were born and their circumstances.
“You know, you can’t help everybody, but you can help some people.”
Kudos to Jaci Obayon who turned her life around and at the same time turned around the life of Jonas, a poor boy from Haiti.
12/29/24

Joe Biden recently, on his last Christmas Eve in the Oval Office, signed 50 bills into law. No, I did not review all of these 50 bills. However, despite the fact that I do not often agree with Joe Biden, one of the signed bills struck me as very apropos. Namely, the one that would preclude members of Congress from collecting pensions if convicted of crimes. Right on, JB!

Also serendipitously on that same day Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released on Dec. 24 his annual “Festivus” list of wasteful government spending in the past year.
“Last Festivus, we bemoaned the national debt nearing $34 trillion. In just a year, Washington’s career politicians and bureaucrats have managed to push it beyond $36 trillion—unsurprisingly, with hardly a second thought,” said Paul in the report.
Realizing that Joe Biden is liberal and Rand Paul is conservative, I think that both have merit. Additionally, I have another proposal that to me makes sense.
In general, almost all members of Congress leave office much more affluent than when they first arrived in Washington.
In 2002, the average congressional pension payment ranged from $41,000 to $55,000. As of November 2014, senior Members of Congress who have been in office for at least 32 years can earn about $139,000 a year.

I would propose that if a retired Congressman’s net value is more than X, he/she should not receive a pension. While I am happy that these retired individuals have achieved a significant amount of wealth while ‘serving’ the people, enough is enough.
In addition as long as there is a budget deficit higher than Y, no retirees should receive any pension. Granted that this means that the some retirees would be at the mercy of those in Congress at the time, it would be a strong incentive for active Congressmen to keep the deficit at a minimum.
BTW: I am available (with no pay) to help Musk and Ramaswamy with DOGE!
12/28/24

Granted there are a lot of things we do not know about what will happen in California after Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President. Here specifically I am speaking about the illegal immigrants now residing in this state and how to deal with them as far as any interaction with ICE is concerned.
The following are excerpts from the SanDiego Union on 12/22/24:
“Here locally the San Diego Board of supervisors voted 3-1 on a policy that would prohibit the Sheriff’s office from assisting in the transfer of an inmate into immigration custody without a warrant or a court order.
But County Sheriff Kelly Martinez said that she would not comply and would continue to follow state law, which still allows some level of cooperation.
Under state law the Sheriff’s office can share the release dates for people in custody if they have qualifying convictions for certain violent or sex crimes.
An official said the following:
‘Immigration officials then decide whether or not they will be present when the individual is released from custody. The Sheriff’s Office does not coordinate with, nor will it delay an individual’s release to accommodate immigration officials.’
In 2023, 25 inmates were transferred from San Diego County jails to ICE custody according to a sheriff’s report. The inmates had been jailed locally on felony convictions that included murder, assault with a deadly weapon, DUI, drug possession, burglary, and participation in a street gang.”

Personally, I cannot quite comprehend why anyone would not realize that turning these types of individuals over to ICE could only be a good thing for the entire San Diego community. Why would the three Democrats on the County Board of Supervisors want to protect murderers, or others on a felony convictions? Here we are not talking about illegal grandmas but dangerous criminals. Since it is very likely that none of these three Democrats on the County Board of Supervisors voted for Donald Trump, is their behavior merely a reflection of their Trump Derangement Syndrome? Certainly it is not a reflection of common sense.
12/27/24

At one point earlier this week my wife and I met some friends for lunch. The food was good, but the price was … OMG! What had been a $13 sandwich the last time we were there, was now an $18+ sandwich, an approximately 40% increase! And what had been two sides included was now only one side included. Being a Baby-boomer we didn’t like the significant price increase, but we are able to afford it. What do Millennials (ages 28-43),or Generation Zers (ages 12-28) do when in a similar situation? Most likely they use their credit card, even though half of millennials and 32% of Gen Zers have more credit card debt than emergency savings.
Why use a credit card? … Because it’s easy and expedient.
Young Americans owe over $1 trillion in debt, with 70% of millennials living paycheck to paycheck. Now I suppose this can be blamed on their parents as one-quarter of Gen Zers and millennials report that their parents did not teach them how to build financial wealth. However, some of these parents are now making up for their presumed past deficiencies as, through 2023, about 45% of young adults aged 18 to 29 were living at home with their families, marking the highest rate since the 1940s.
Be that as it may, 88% of Americans say that high school did not adequately prepare them in terms of handling money in the real world. Ergo, even though there appears to be plenty of blame to go around, namely high school teachers and parents, my finger points directly at Joe Biden as his policies have caused the $13 sandwich to skyrocket to $18+.
As I have always had a bit of difficulty keeping millennials and Gen- Zers separate and straight, perhaps we should just combine the into one group … the Bidennials! Perhaps this will just another something for his legacy.
12/26/24

For those of us who live in San Diego we can see an example of incompetence just about every day when we see nothing. How can this be? How can incompetence be visualized by seeing nothing? In San Diego the answer is simple as we now have a myriad of bike lanes that no one is using. To be honest rarely I do actually see a bicyclist in one of these bike lanes. In a city of 1.388 million people, over the course of the last year I have seen perhaps ten bicyclists using these bike lanes. Because I do not travel extensively around all parts of the city, let’s arbitrarily, and very generously, multiply the number of bike lane users that I have actually seen by one thousand (1000 X 10 = 10,000). In a city of 1,388,000 it comes out to be that these bike lanes are servicing 0.3% of San Diego’s population.
At a cost of tens of millions of dollars for these 0.3%, I say either wtf or WTF! I say this in part because San Diego now faces an annual budget deficit of roughly $300 million.
Parenthetically, the reason for all of these unused bike lanes has something to do with “climate change.” Try to explain that to the many restaurants along 30th street that I and many other senior citizens can no longer frequent because the street parking has been eliminated to accommodate the largesse of about 0.3% of the city’s population.
It would seem to me that the parking meter fees on 30th (no longer being generated because most of the parking meter spaces have even eliminated by the bike lanes) in addition to the sales taxes that would be generated if us seniors could again eat at these restaurants on 30th would be a welcome addition to the city coffers. Granted the elimination of the bike lanes on 30th would not solve San Diego’s budgetary crises, but the street parking on 30th is only a microcosm of a citywide problem. Luckily our politicians and their bike lanes are taking a giant leap for mankind in its fight against climate change … NOT!
12/24/24

A truly scary situation is possibly developing in California according to Politico which reported that Dana Williamson, who was Newsom’s chief of staff, left the governor’s office and was replaced by Nathan Barankin, who was a political consultant and adviser to Kamala Harris, fueling speculation that Newsom is eyeing a run at the White House in 2028 and that Harris may be seeking the California governor’s mansion.
Even though Harris was a poor VP and terrible Presidential candidate, in looney-tunes California she could actually win if she ran for governor. That would truly be another disaster for the people of California, because she has the potential to be a worse governor than Newsom.
Let’s briefly review some of Newsom’s accomplishments as governor.
From PM.:
– California presently has a $45 billion budget deficit under Newsom’s leadership despite a $100 billion surplus only three years ago.

– In April, a state audit revealed that Newsom’s California spent over $24 billion in the last five years to try and address the Golden State’s massive homelessness problem but did not track the results or the effectiveness of its efforts. Despite the massive spending, California’s number of homeless increased by at least 30,000 during that time period and is currently home to at least 30 percent of the people living on the streets in the US.
-Some of the homeless programs, that received over $9.4 billion since 2020, could not even be assessed due to a lack of data.

– Since Newsom’s $20 minimum wage law took effect in April, over 10,000 jobs have been lost from the state’s restaurant industry as struggling franchises have been forced to cut labor and spike prices to survive the costly wage increase that has resulted in mass layoffs.

– Newsom’s high-speed rail project has also been a spending disaster. DOGE’s X account posted in November, “Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: -Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion -Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed -Received $6.8 billion in federal funds -Requesting $8 billion in additional federal funds.”

Now while I am not worried about the liberal Gavin Newsom being elected president in 2028, I am worried that the present incompetent Vice President, Kamala Harris, could be elected as a future governor of California, because she has the potential to actually be worse that Newsom!
12/23/24

On Sundays I write about individuals who deserve our praise. Mike Witmer is such a guy. The father of two was born and raised in Maryland and works in land surveying. He is also a Christmas light fanatic who builds a big and bold display at his home every holiday season.
Every year since 2002, Mike Witmer has included “Hi Kevin” in his Christmas light display.
From The Epoch Times – Bright:
“The story of how he came to include ‘Hi Kevin’ in his Christmas lights goes back to the fall of 2002, when Mr. Witmer’s then-11-year-old neighbor, Kevin Mullen, was diagnosed with cancer.
When the holidays rolled out that year, Kevin was undergoing treatment at the Children’s Hospital. Mr. Witmer decided to add an encouraging message to his Christmas display for Kevin’s homecoming.
“The doctors told him he‘d be well enough to spend that Christmas at home,” Mr. Witmer said. “I just had this …  idea to write, ’Get well, Kevin,‘ in my Christmas light display. … Kevin saw his name in lights and actually asked his Mom, ’Do you think Mr. Witmer will put my name in lights every year?’”

Kevin went into remission, but every year from that moment on, Mr. Witmer added “Hi Kevin” to his Christmas display by painting two pieces of wood and placing them in different locations among the lights. “It was almost like my own little ‘Where’s Waldo?’ game with Kevin,” Mr. Witmer said.
When Kevin was 19 and had just finished his freshman year at the University of Maryland, his cancer returned. Kevin was a young adult. His losing his battle with cancer in June 2010, left everyone who knew him heartbroken.
Because of his connection with Kevin, Mr. Witmer was asked to speak at the funeral. At the end of his speech, he invited all the guests to visit his home at Christmas that year to see a bigger and brighter “Hi Kevin” sign.”

On Dec. 5, 2009, the year before he passed, Kevin wrote a message to Mr. Witmer on Facebook. It read, “Your light display never fails to amaze me, Mr. Witmer … you really are a classic ‘Clark Griswold.’”

Mike Witmer’s display from 2023 … still honoring Kevin Mullin after 21 years.
Kudos to Mike Witmer, a man true to his word.

12/22/24

A stunning but at the same time a blatantly surprising article recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal detailing how much Joe Biden’s poor mental state affected his performance over the last few years. But even more shocking was how this was systematically covered-up by the White House staff.
From Red State:
“The Wall Street Journal report had concerning new stories about how long they’ve been covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and how severe it had gotten even three years ago during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, when the chair of the House Armed Services Committee at the time wasn’t even able to get through to him about potential problems that could occur with the withdrawal. 

The WSJ reported several instances where Biden struggled with day-to day things including that he was so impaired he couldn’t even repeat back lines they were giving him to prepare him for his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur over the classified document scandal.
It’s an incredible scandal that reveals how much control unelected individuals shielding Biden had over decision-making.”

A disgrace to say the least! But why? To me the most obvious answer is that the Dems had no credible backup, and they knew it. We all saw what a poor candidate Kamala Harris was during her campaign ramblings prior to the recent November election. Imagine her being President for three years if the poor mental state of Joe Biden was brought out into the open. By anointing her as the VP candidate in 2020, the Dems had dug themselves into an inescapable hole from which the only escape was via covering up.
So that is the answer as to “Why?”

To me these intentional, coordinated, and secretive shenanigans have destroyed any possible trust that the American people can have in Democrats for many years to come.
However, one very important further question needs to be asked. Namely, was this intentional covering up of Biden’s incapacity a criminal act? To me the answer is undoubtedly, “Yes!”
Hopefully, Kash Patel’s FBI and the new DOJ will investigate this after Trump’s upcoming inauguration.
12/21/24