WILL THEY EVER LEARN? California considering taking over oil refineries because it works so well in Iran and Venezuela.

Uh, no. They're Democrats.

I RECOMMEND she try living in North Korea. And reporting back if she survives....

IT PROVES HE'S ON TARGET: Five former U.S. Defense Secretaries deem Trump's military firings reckless.

I'D RATHER SEND THE DOD: Can we send DOGE to deal with the ‘Free-Palestine’ brats?

HEH: THE NEW YORK TIMES endorses Dan Bongino for Deputy Director of the FBI.

IT'S TIME FOR SOME TDS KILLING: Republicans should fight Democrats' nationwide injunctions.

PROGRESSIVE IDIOT ALERT: No, the GOP isn't cutting your Social Security and Medicare.

To find out more of my thoughts on why Social Security is such a debacle, here is a compendium of old thoughts on Social Security. They're in no particular order; that's the way Blogger works. Some of the posts are direct responses to an old Social Security subgroup that was within the MoveOn organization.

I would additionally note that before Biden, my Social Security payments were regular and correctly calculated. During the Biden administration, they have been royally screwed up and Social Security totally nonresponsive to my letters and emails. Now that Trump has taken the reins again, at least the monthly payments are on time and correctly calculated. (The leftover Biden era errors I'm going to let slide; it's too painful to continue the one-way 'conversation' -- and the remaining errors are in my favor.)

IDIOTS GOTTA IDIOT: TikTokker self-incriminates and draws attention of U.S. Attorney.

Their virtual world is no longer a safe space for progressive lunatics....

FRIENDSHIP IN AMERICA IS IN FREEFALL — and it's killing us.

IT'S PRETTY CLEAR THEY DON'T WANT THEIR GRIFT EXPOSED: Federal workers add Musk's achievements email to lawsuit against DOGE.

LONG READ: MAGA agonistes. It's by Victor Davis Hanson, so that outomatically puts it in the must read category.

FRUSTRATED BY TRUMP'S THREATS, some Canadians are canceling trips to the United States. And frustrated by Mexican cartels, nearly all Americans have canceled trips to Mexico.

Big whoop....

THE YOU-DO ECONOMY: Self-service may seem inconvenient, but it’s a new frontier of individualism.

Ri-i-ight. It's a nifty of making the customer an unpaid employee of the seller.

I saw this coming a few decades ago....

NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST WARNS that people all over the world will die because Trump wants to 'break things'.

He seems to believe that 'breaking (his) things' is bad....

WORST NEWS OUTLET OF THE WEEK - a look at the latest deliveries from the dysfunctional media.

I don't know that Red State could call an easy winner. From my perspective the range was
from F⁺ to F^-.

SAFETYISM KILLS: California, the ultimate helicopter state, which has led to excessive and even destructive regulations that don’t actually keep you safe, and which in fact may endanger you.

God forbid a piece of “highly toxic ash” touches your skin! God forbid a hazardous particle enters your body! Karen Bass is here to keep you safe as you sit in a cramped hotel room with your children and your dog, or on your friend’s couch.

But don't worry. California will (eventually) build high-rise apartments for you to live in (on your own properties)....

THE THREE AMIGOS give a progress report.

AMERICAN GREATNESS on redefining environmentalism.

I remember a science fiction story from many years ago where city dwellers had to enter a lottery to be allowed strictly controlled visits into the 'wilderness'. California is nearing that stage.

I THOUGHT THEY'D ALREADY LOWERED THE BAR TO ZERO: California bar exam is in shambles.

SHE'D ONLY BE EMPLOYABLE in a couple of deep blue cities.

But I might go if only to enjoy the French fries...

TERM LIMITS, PERHAPS? The judicial 'resistance' is setting itself up for an epic smackdown.

GETTING THE LEFT TO TELL THE TRUTH: Replace every mention of "our democracy" with "our bureaucracy" [and] everything starts making a lot more sense.

Watch the video.

NOTHING STEAMS MY CLAMS like liberals pretending to be virtuous.

AT LEAST I HAVE A JOB. Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responds to bizarre attack from former CNN reporter Jim Acosta.

MONSTER HUNTER NATION: Educating the stupid on how audits work in real life.

[R-LA] SEN. JOHN KENNEDY'S BOTTOM-LINE TAKE on public broadcasting is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE DAY: He was suspended for helping DOGE. Now he runs the Social Security Administration.

It's an interim appointment, to be sure, until Trump's nominee takes the reins. But it must hurt. I will not be surprised to see resignations/firings in the near future....

DONALD TRUMP HAS BEEN PRESIDENT FOR ONE MONTH and the Canadian aircraft crash in Toronto is his fault?

THE DEMOCRAT^* PARTY is starving to death.

^*The Democrat Party is not -- and has not been for years -- 'Democratic'.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Elon Musk's DOGE should be renamed FAFO (Federal Agency for Financial Oversight).

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM HIS 'NORMAL' BEHAVIOR? Keith Olbermann goes ballistic over 'MSNBC racist purge'.

MAGA IS WORKING: Acting head of Social Security quits after clash with DOGE over data access.

This reminds me of an earlier post.

POWERLINE: "Populism” is when the wrong candidate wins an election.

As I have said (probably many times) before, if an 'expert' says something it's almost certainly wrong.

TRUMP'S POPULARITY is because Americans are not smart.

Jasmine Crockett was tiptoeing through the tulips when smart was being handed out.

NO, OF COURSE NOT. “Do you think Democrats learned anything from their historic loss last November?”

GEORGE CLOONEY AND STEPHEN COLBERT SUSPEND DISBELIEF and implore journalists to 'stand on the right side of history'.

There's no reality left in the virtual world they live in.

RUPERT MURDOCH fears family 'leftists' ruining Fox News.

Murdoch's son James, the heir likely to control Fox News, "is an avowed leftist" ...

In recent years, the Murdoch news empire, including Fox News, has embraced climate change while at the same time launching Fox’s sister channel Fox Weather to support the climate change agenda.

On social issues such as abortion and transgender, Fox has moved its coverage to promote woke social change, even praised a family for transitioning their child, all while internally changing company policies to embrace woke gender rules.

I've noticed too, and while I still prefer Fox's organization and presentation, I'm steadily moving more to Newsmax and other online sources.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: DOGE finds $2 billion in taxpayer funds earmarked for Stacey Abrams-linked group.

The President of United Earth needs a little walk-around cash.

WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? Trump executive order wipes out 90 years of practice and permanently changes the Executive Branch.

WHEN REALITY meets the Babylon Bee.

THE SHOWDOWN AT THE DOJ CORRAL is bigger than the NYC Mayor's corruption charges.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL [D-CA] continues his climb up TDS mountain.

THIS IS THE KIND OF STUPID that got Trump elected.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Did DOGE's audit of the Social Security Administration discover Methusaleh's Children?

MORNING GLORY: The last temptation of a grant maker.

RANDOM THOUGHT FOR DEMOCRATS: Don't get stuck on stupid.

HOW MUCH LONGER until Sen. John Fetterman [D?-PA] leaves the Democrat party?

DOGE ROUNDUP: Here are the top takedowns so far.

GREG GUTFIELD'S four steps to mainstream media suicide.

DEMOCRATS LIE ABOUT DOGE: Mythologies about the Department of Government Efficiency.

THE BABYLON BEE IS (ALMOST) REPORTING NEWS AGAIN: Europeans beg JD Vance to become President of Europe.

Nope. In four more years JD Vance will be President of the United States and Donald Trump will run against Stacey Abrams for President of United Earth.

HE'S SEEN THE LIGHT: And is shocked -- shocked! -- that the Democrats haven't.

DOGE: The canary in the coal mine.

And the Republicans in Congress are now paying attention. Read it all.

THE DEFINITION OF LIBERAL HYPOCRISY: You suffer, we get the credit.

RANDOM THOUGHT: While watching, have you noticed that the Democrats are blowing their tops accusing the Republicans of doing the exact same things they themselves have been doing the last 4 years?

RED STATE: Trump is making FAFO great again.

JOE CONCHA: Democrats with common sense down to this unlikely trio.

Three is not a winning number -- and I'm not sure they'll even be Democrats is 2026.

NO SWEAT; I SURVIVED COVID: What to expect if you snag that new wonder flu.

EXPECT A MOON-SHATTERING KABOOM: Heads are going to explode when DOGE cancels this boondoggle.

FED UP GOP CONGRESSMAN dispels liberal 'lies' against DOGE in letter to constituents. (Note: PJ Media VIP post)

We need more congresscritters like Rep. Ben Cline [R-VA].

SCOTT PINSKER: Why the losing losers in the Democratic party keep losing.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY [R-LA] has a few unkind remarks about USAID.

And a few kind remarks about Elon Musk: "Hell, I think we ought to give him a medal.”

The video is here.

TRUMP OUTDOES THE BABYLON BEE: the real two-state solution.

Seriously, though, a significant number of Palestinians are going to have to leave if Gaza is ever going to be rebuilt in a timely fashion.

ARE TRUMP’S TARIFFS REALLY TARIFFS? No. They're in place to force allies and rivals both to stop exploiting U.S. generosity.

REP. NANCY MACE [R-SC] goes nuclear on Rep. Gerry Connolly [D-VA]. "I'm not going to be counseled by a man over men and women's spaces or men who have mental health issues dressing as women.”

Bravo, Nancy Mace. Keep on melting the snowflakes....

As a minor aside, since when was the Left allowed to rewrite America's dictionary? I always thought a 'tranny' was an automobile part....

PJ MEDIA: What Elon Musk owes you and me.

SOPHISTICATED? OR STUPID? Smug Paul Krugman says Trump won because his low-income supporters lack sophisticated views on economics.

A BOX OF ROCKS WOULD VOTE SMARTER: Ohio Democrats' latest act again shows that this party doesn't get why they lost in 2024.

Not just in Ohio....

DEMOCRATS HAVE TRUMP FEVER and there is no cure.

Nor should there be. Like other rabid animals, they should be isolated and removed from the healthy population without remorse.

GOOD FOR US: Georgia's Republicans aim for a state-level version of DOGE.

SURPRISED? Hamas recordings reveal humanitarian aid went to leaders in Gaza.

I'm not.

BOUND TO HAPPEN: Walmart's decision to roll back DEI 'restores the promise of the American Dream.'

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION granted George Washington University $5 million to stop 'misinformation'.

'Experts' know more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.

THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN when they elected a Hogg to DNC leadership.

RANDOM THOUGHT: The Democrats are daily issuing SOS (Save Our Swamp) demands.

A VALENTINE for Elon Musk.

WHAT WE KNOW and what we don't about January 6th.

KURT SCHLICHTER: "I am so not tired of all the winning."

Nor I. Keep mocking the naysayers, and keep winning.

MAXINE WATERS AND OTHER DUMB DEMOCRATS attempted to ambush the Education Department amid DOGE cuts.

They lost.

AMMO GRRRLL has thoughts on good intentions.

ONLY 3,000? Women speak 3,000 more words daily than men.

FROM LAST WEEK: Another Friday of dumb.

I think we've reached the point where there should be a daily 'dumb' post....

PJ MEDIA'S WARD CLARK: "Democrats are thrashing around like a bunch of 'possums in a wet sack."

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL [R-KY] reportedly falls down stairs in D.C. In the post, this important note:

The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work.

As a polio survivor myself, I can attest that post-polio syndrome is real. It's debilitating, progressive, and not treatable. The mind is untroubled, but the body is not.

IMMIGRANTS SHOULD LEARN TO LOVE AMERICA ... and so should we!

PJ MEDIA'S CLOWN OF THE WEEK AWARD goes to ... all of them.

Read it all to see the candidates.

NOPE: Is there a Democrat blueprint to regain power?

WELL, YOU VOTED FOR IT: Skyrocketing healthcare budget for illegal immigrants haunts blue state taxpayers.

Just don't demand I to pay for it.

POUND SAND, LOSERS. Not many Americans are going to tolerate what these federal workers had to say.

TINFOIL HATURDAY: The Las Vegas car bomber was a whistleblower.

This one has been on my to-be-posted list for a month or so, so it's dated, but still interesting as a mishmash of PTSD, batshit crazy, and possibly plausible military experience. What interests me though, is the complete lack of interest on the part of the government and mainstream media into the 'whys' and 'wherefores' of what is (to me, at least) an obviously newsworthy event.

I'm reminded of that final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark of the Covenant is quietly crated up and stored in a dusty government warehouse, consigned to oblivion forever.

GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE. The end of the Obamas’ political influence may be closer than we think.

THE TOP TEN DUMB THINGS said last week.

A MEMO TO DOGE: Kill it before it spreads further.

A MESSAGE FROM DEMOCRATS to the DOGE team.

WHY THE BABYLON BEE is now America's News of Record.

STILL NOT SICK OF ALL THE WINNING: Terrified staff left hysterical as ‘well drilled’ DOGE nerds storm hyper ‘woke’ Department of Education.

MORE PROOF (if needed) that Democrats are insane.

GOOD: Trump signs order instructing DOGE to massively cut federal workforce.

America's 'Karens' need more workers to pick the grapes for their 'whine'....

MORE PROOF: "[T]he problem with writing satire these days is that you have to compete with the newspapers, and the newspapers are winning."

RANDOM THOUGHT: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money" has been attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen [R-IL]. That was probably in the mid-to-late 1960's.

Today though, it should be "a billon here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking pocket change."

TEN PROBLEMS WITH DEI that frighten the public.

Rightfully so.

CALL IT TRUMPISTAN: Trump eyes ownership of Gaza Strip.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY [R-LA] punctures the Democrats' wild ranting about USAID.

Here's the video clip on X.

BUT DEAD ONES ARE STILL THE BEST: Crying commies are the second-best commies.

DNC . DEI . DEAD: The Democrat party wants to die.

They're succeeding....

DEMOCRATS ELECT NEW CHAIR WHO BRANDED TRUMP A 'TRAITOR' as party aims to rebound from disastrous 2024 election.

The Democrat party just voted to dig deeper with their backhoe ... nah, they're in 'drill baby drill' territory.

ADD EDS [ELON DERANGEMENT SYNDROME] as another nasty disease infecting Democrat minds.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN DISARRAY; so the biggest threat to Trump are Republicans.

The Republicans in Congress must take note of this quote attributed to Ben Franklin.

AND HOW MANY BILLIONS ARE YOU WORTH, LADY? AOC calls Elon Musk 'unintelligent.

And how did you earn it?

SERIOUSLY? CIA offering a buyout for its entire workforce.

Apparently so.

THE BABYLON BEE IS VENTURING INTO NEWS REPORTING AGAIN. Democrats warn Trump’s unelected shadow government is dismantling their unelected shadow government.

RANDOM THOUGHT: 'Orange Man Bad' has now become 'Tariff Sheriff'.

WINNING: In less than two weeks in, DOGE has canceled over a billion dollars in DEI contracts.

And now it's taken on the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Next up: the Department of Education.

JUDICIAL GAMESMANSHIP: From the Left, the law is what we say it is until we change our mind.

Automatic vacatur of a three-judge panel’s opinion may seem like a minor procedural process, but, as Judge VanDyke noted, it “creates perverse incentives for government defendants.” When the Ninth Circuit grants en banc rehearing, it provides an opportunity for government defendants to amend the challenged law so that it can not only evade review, but the government also gets the added benefit of taking the prior panel opinion finding their action unlawful off the books.

Read the whole thing for details.

FROM POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, my (obvious) favorite.

Now go see the rest.

I THOUGHT racism was the most important problem facing the nation.

No, Leftist grift is.

WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE? Selena Gomez's meltdown really highlights one of the Left's most disgusting issues.

Read the whole thing, then join me in saying "I detest these people."

SHAMELESSLY STOLEN because it's so damned funny:

Instapundit's post is here.

UNTHINKING seems to be common among the self-important progressive minds.

SUDDENLY TRUMP PROOFING CALIFORNIA seems like a really dumb idea.

But then California is home base for really dumb ideas....

THE BABYLON BEE IS PUBLISHING NEWS AGAIN: Federal workers concerned that returning to the office will interfere with them not working.

THE DAILY CHART: A red shift in political maps.

A significant red shift....

HISTORY MIGHT NOT REPEAT BUT IT DOES RHYME: Democrats on slavery and Democrats on illegal immigration.

The Democrat party is trying to replenish its farm team; Trump isn't cooperating.

AMMO GRRRLL denies that 70 is the new 60. Read on.

A CIVILIZATIONAL FORK IN THE ROAD: Let's be sure to take it.

ONE OF THE DUMBEST PHRASES IN MILITARY HISTORY: Our diversity is our strength.

SCHUMER’S UNINTENDED CONFESSION: “Virtually any organization, school, state, police office, county, town or community depends on federal grant money to run its day to day operations..."

Which explains why government should be significantly downsized.

THE TRUMP EFFECT: The number of genders hits a 10-year low.

YOU HAVE TO LAUGH AT SEN. STUPID SANDERS [I-VT]: "Are you supportive of these onesies?"

TRUMP’S 5-D CHESS: How mass firings are freezing the Deep State.

Clever. Very clever.

BECAUSE GRIFT NO LONGER PAYS [PJMedia VIP]: Ibram Kendi Leaves Boston University and shutters his Center for Antiracist Research.

TRUMP DEALS two blows to wokenesss.

"WE ALL ENJOY A BIT OF SCHADENFREUDE NOW AND THEN, and when your opponents are cruel, self-absorbed, arrogant, and doing damage to innocent people, it's hard not to laugh when they get a taste of their own medicine."