These Are The Take-Home Messages Main Stream Americans

Briefly:

• men in women's sports, including their showers
• prevent the government from sending criminal element of illegal "immigrants" back to their home states
• blank check for Zelenskyy (Ukraine) after several years -- and neither Ukraine nor Europe are trying to bring war to an end
• continue with wasteful spending in Washington, e.g., funds for transgender farmers
  

And that's just a start.

 

A Turn Toward Conservatism -- Trump -- Vance -- 2028 And Beyond -- February 23, 2025

A reader suggested, like the McKinley era, we could be headed for 12 - 16 years of conservatism.

My reply: 

Good morning, all

1. I will withhold judgement on the "McKinley" question until at least the mid-terms.

2. Under Biden, the pendulum simply swung too far left and now the pendulum is swinging back to the right. There's a huge possibility that the pendulum will now swing too far right, and the GOP could lose the US Senate and the US House in two years.

3. I have concerns  whether Congress will actually codify the vast number of executive orders signed by Trump. If the EOs, are not codified, then they are subject to being easily overturned.

4. I was disappointed to see the "bureaucratic response by the SecDOT regarding the California Bullet Train. He came out with a typical Bidenesque comment: we will do an audit. No, the response should have been: all federal money will be withheld from all California transportation projects -- including highways, interstates, seaports, airports -- until California itself provides an audit of the Bullet Train that is acceptable to the federal government.

5. That's my biggest concern: there are few folks like Trump and Vance who are willing to move very, very quickly, -- a take-no-prisoners, shoot-first-think-later mentality. Kristy Noem and Pete Hegseth might be exceptions. It will be interesting to see if Kash Patel moves 1,500 FBI agents out of Washington. And the list goes on. Even Trump is starting to waffle on tariffs. Waffling makes him look vulnerable.

6. It's going to be a fine needle to thread to institute huge tariffs without crashing the stock market (Walmart) and driving up inflation.

7. With regard to Williams McKinley, things are much, much different now than then:

   a.  the culture is much, much, much different; the two-sex-only theory is scientifically incorrect; banning obvious abuses in the sexual identify arena should be dealt with (no "xy" playing on "xx" sports after age 14, for example); but, after that, it gets squishy. I saw many examples of sexual identity issues while practicing as a pediatrician that were very legitimate;

   b. AI will have a huge impact and it hasn't even rally begun;

   c. streaming, podcasts, etc, change everything -- my wife and I live in two completely different political universes.

  d. the migration / immigration story is still being sorted out;

  e. Women's Rights have been pushed back to the pre-1960s in the eyes of many. Regardless of what side of the issue one is on, that's a fact: in the eyes of many the GOP is not a friend of Women's Rights. 

8. Those are national issues; we haven't even gotten to the international issues.

9. All it takes to turn everything in the opposite direction is a charismatic JFK to show up (it's not Pete Buttigieg), two more major civilian mid-air crashes, any major US military miss-step (a US submarine lost at sea or a major nuclear accident), and any change -- any change -- to social security.

10. So, I'm holding judgement until at least the midterms. And even then, at most, it might show a "trend," but it won't necessarily mean anything in four years.

Bruce

Chairman, Joint Chiefs Of Staff -- February 21, 2025

Of course, The New York Times is aghast.

Isn't it normal for all presidents to choose their own Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff?

See Joint Chiefs of Staff. All appointed by Biden.

Requires confirmation by the US Senate.

Current Chairman:

• appointed by Biden after Trump 1.0's Chairman

Current chairman:

• born in 1962 but exact date of birth not known? how does this happen; what shows up in his official documents?
• 41 years active duty service; mandatory retirement, 30 years except for general officers
• 63 years old; young by many standards, but 30-year officer would retire in mid-50s.
• I'm not sure why he didn't offer his resignation when Trump was elected? That should practically be standard.
• every entry regarding current chairman focuses on is ethnic background. At some point, it gets old, it gets tedious. 
  

The Fed -- JPow -- Trump Tariffs -- Liars And Hypocrites -- Wednesday -- February 19, 2025

 Link here.

In testimony over the past few weeks, when asked, Fed chair JPow consistently said that the Fed doesn't worry about "policy" when they (the Fed) considers and sets rates, and yet, here we are.

Either I'm misreading him or misheard or JPow is a liar, also. Like all the rest in Washington, DC. But I know he was asked about Trump's tariffs and he avoided answering the question.

Ukraine -- February 19, 2025

 

Ukraine. Mike Walatz, National Security Advisor, has it exactly right. Trump wants the war over. "Everyone" else, it seems, wants the war to continue. Again, Trump has a self-imposed 100-day deadline. I wouldn't bet against Trump on this one. Eminently qualified but wow, he has a tough story to sell the American public (most of whom have long gotten bored with this story). From wiki:

Michael George Glen Waltz, 51 years old, is an American politician, businessman, author, and former Army Special Forces officer who is the 29th and current U.S. National Security Advisor.

He previously served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 6th congressional district from 2019 to 2025.

He is a member of the Republican Party and is the first Army Special Forces soldier to be elected to the United States Congress. Waltz received four Bronze Stars while serving in the Special Forces during multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa.

He served in the Bush administration as a defense policy director in the Pentagon and as counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2018, Waltz won election to the House of Representatives, defeating former ambassador Nancy Soderberg and succeeded Ron DeSantis, who was elected the 46th governor of Florida that same year. He was re-elected in 2020, 2022, and 2024 with over 60% of the vote in each election.

Waltz served as chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness for the 118th United States Congress. 

"Ukraine start this." Folks are misreading Trump on this one.

Trump's Ukraine? Biden's Afghanistan?

Trump -- SDNY -- Mayor Adams -- February 18, 2025

I've never had so much fun watching Trump play chess.

A federal judge is not going to rubber stamp Trump's request to drop case against NYC mayor Adams.

I assume this is a federal case; if so, Trump can pardon NYC mayor Adams. Link here.

So, let the federal judge do what he wants. 

Trump holds the trump card. LOL.

Presidents Are Transformatinal -- February 16, 2025

A reader sent me this link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/recession-begins-dc-active-housing-listings-soar-jobless-claims-spike-doge-drains-swamp.

My reply: I’m waiting for Trump to announce the following moves:

• presidential operations will move to his Florida White House, 
• taking the entire West Wing with him and leaving Musk, Rubio, Hespeth, and Bondi in DC.
• vice president's office will remain in Washington, DC, to be close to the US Senate
  
• Dept of Government Efficiency to remain in DC 
• transition DOGE to new department, the Department of Technology: Stanford, CA
  
• intel operations will remain in the DC area
• Dept of Energy will be divided into three divisions
• nuclear: Los Alamos, NM (alternates: Chicago, Princeton)
  
• fossil fuel: Ft Worth, TX
• all else: Denver, CO
  
• Homeland Security office will be moved to El Paso, TX.
• Health and Human Services
• surveillance, research: Atlanta, Georgia
  
• benefits (social security, medicare): North Hero, Vermont
  
• Commerce: Seattle, Washington
  
• Dept of Interior to Utah.
• Defense, Justice, FBI, stay in DC area. 
• Treasury to NYC or Boston, including the Fed.  
• IRS will remain in current locations
  
• NASA is broken into two divisions
• theoretical: NASA East stays in Florida.
• commercial applications: NASA West (Musk/Texas)
• FEMA: Califonria -- FEMA until the agency becomes solely a go-between  the White House and the states' own FEMA operations
  
• Department of Education to Iowa, until it, too, becomes purely a go-between between the White House and states' own education operations
  
• Department of Veterans Affairs, to be co-located with existing military bases: 
• west coast, Camp Pendleton (US Marines)
  
• west coast, south, San Diego (Navy)
  
• east coast: North Carolina's Fort Bragg (Amry)
  
• south: San Antonio, TX (Army) -- Fort Sam Houston
• west, central: US Air Force -- Colorado Springs
• Department of Agriculture: Moline, Illinois
• Housing and Urban Development: Mar-A-Lago
• Labor: Detroit
• Dept of Transportation: Detroit
• Trade Representative
• west: China / San Francisco, CA
  
• south: Mexico / San Antonio, TX
• north: Canada / Detroit unless Canada becomes 51st stage
• east: EU / Bangor, Maine