WHEN CONSERVATIVES REFUSE TO PLAY the Democrats and regime media lose.

DEPARTMENT OF IMAGINARY CONCERNS: Trump offers support to Democrats with the creation oo a new government agency.

WE CAN DO IT TOO: Live by judge shopping, die by judge shopping.

And the Trump administration should do it much more aggressively.

THE LEFT AND THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: It is about control.

POWERLINE: Look back in anger.

AND 'I' IS FOR IDIOT: Virginia school puts up controversial ABCs display on Women's History Month, starting with 'A is for Abortion'.

It's Fairfax County, the 'wokest' one in Virginia, and frankly I doubt that very many students there know the entire alphabet.

COLUMBIA PRESIDENT RESIGNS (AGAIN) but the DEI battle is just beginning.

If I were President, I'd stop all federal funding immediately and restore it on a case-by-case basis only after year of demonstrated good behavior.

THIS IS WAR: Trump takes an axe to government unions.

Let's hope at least some of them go on strike so Trump can follow Ronald Reagan's lead.

SHE'S BA-A-ACK! It was the perfect opening.

Politically, it was the equivalent of grilling a big, fat, juicy steak in the middle of the African savannah — and then being mystified by the sudden appearance of drooling predators.

Yes, folks, with a power vacuum that big and that tempting, it was only a matter of time before Hillary remerged from the political wilderness.

AMMO GRRRLL encounters Medicare's annual 'wellness' exam. Luckily for us, my wife and I were both past the 365 day minimum -- by about a year.

SEATTLE AWFL (ANGRY WHITE FEMALE LIBERAL) caught keying a Tesla. Her motive is unknown.

Motive unknown? Is barking-at-the-moon mad is not an option?

EDUCATION SECRETARY LINDA McMAHON warns California Gov. Newsom that actions speak louder than words.

I'M NOT SYMPATHETIC: back-to-the-office blues.

I'd call them back for 6 days a week to make up for the lost time that they weren't active online....

INTERESTING: Out of sight and out of mind.

I almost feel guilty posting this....

“TEACH A MAN TO GRIFT, feed him for a lifetime.“

THIS IS HOW YOU WIN A WAR: Crush them.

PJ MEDIA: Sunday reflections.

I DON'T CARE about the silly Signal non-scandal.

Beyond wondering how Jeffrey Goldberg got on the access list, neither should you.

BIG PHARMA ISN’T OUR FRIEND – nor are the judges who do its bidding.

I would only add that the world would be a better place if the Big Pharma industry was banned from advertising (expensive) prescription medications. It seems to me that it advertises a 'cure' for a 'disease' that remains unnamed for the duration of the ad.

2025 SPRING LEAVES, WEEK 4: Compared to last week, it's foggy, cloudy and misting outside. We start with the forsythia, which last week was almost completely yellow, with just a touch of green. This week is the opposite, almost completely green with just a touch of yellow.

The pond view from the house hasn't much changed. The blossoms on the tulip magnolia are still hanging on, a bit fuller perhaps, but certainling fading in color. The ground cover, mostly 'feral' weeds are just beginning to peek out from last autumn's leaf fall.

The fire pit view is also not much changed -- a little greener grass perhaps, but the flowers are still mostly dormant.

Here's the house again, picture taken from below, with the tulip magnolia and our sole blooming iris in the foreground. As before, the ground is still pretty clear, with the little bits of green mostly other iris that are yet to bloom.

Our pond is mostly unchanged -- no buds, water very calm. Next week should be different though, as our neighbor across the pond has been very busily taking down trees on his property.

And finally a view of our house from down near the pond. Still leaves on the ground, no ground cover, no leaves on the trees except for the evergreen pines, and that lonely tuplip magnolia.

Until next week then.

JUST ANOTHER REASON TO CUT TAXES: California now tracking cow farts from space. Seriously.

SHE'S BEEN NUTS FOR A LONG TIME, but this takes the cake: Maxine Waters suggests Trump should consider deporting Melania.

HEH: Still waiting on the “queer Quran” course.

NOT SOON ENOUGH: Democrats facing electoral crisis by 2030.

If these trends hold [blue states losing population to red states], the 2030 census will shift the Electoral College sharply to the right. The states that Kamala Harris won in 2024 will lose perhaps as many as a dozen House seats and Electoral College votes. The states that Trump won would gain them. In that Electoral College, a Democrat could win every state Harris won in 2024 plus Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and still lose.

The Democrats have been aborting their own future voters in favor of immigrating them. Now that that's over they should learn, but they won't can't.

DNA IS A HARSH MISTRESS. Allentown PA city employee caught in noose hoax.

MORE QUESTIONS about D.C. District Judge James Boasberg.

THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE TRUMP CABINET MEETINGS. Spare a moment for the plight of the transgender farmer of San Francisco.

THERE IS NO ARGENTINIAN ECONOMIC MIRACLE; there is Argentinian President Javier Milei's hard work.

NO SURPRISE IN BURNING TESLAS: "Cutting what any objective person would consider waste and fraud is an existential threat to a party whose power depends on permanent bloat, off-books slush funds, and unaccountable bureaucracies.”

Read it all.

INSTAPUNDIT: Homeschooling isn’t for everybody, but I’m increasingly convinced that public schooling isn’t for anybody.

HE NEEDS TO BE A FORMER JUDGE: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg makes another outrageous ruling.

THE LEFT KNEW: They were lying to us all along.

I'M WAITING TO SEE IF THE COLUMBIA ADMINISTRATION STEPS UP TO THE PLATE: Columbia faculty hold 'emergency vigil', urge students to wear mask, skip class to protest Trump.

Frankly I expect them to try and weasel out....

THE SAME WAY WE CURE RABIES: How do we cure the woke mind viruses?

THE WIT AND WISDOM of Joy Reid.

THE IRS MODERNIZATION PROGRAM is interesting, if by interesting you mean "enraging" and "obscene."

The current modernization program ... is currently 30 years behind schedule and $15 billion over budget. It's been 35 years in development, and is now "five years away" from completion. And has been since 1996.

Molasses moves faster than Government-sponsored infrastructure development.

NEW PLAN to register more GOP voters is brilliant.

SANDERS-AOC COMEDY TOUR is a sign of far-Left desperation.

IT’S ALL EXCUSE-MAKING AND MISDIRECTION: Waste, fraud, and abuse is the Deep State's livelihood. And they're getting rich as a result.

The tweet and response is here.

EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF 'AND': Is the left delusional or just stupid?

The last sentence in the post sums it up perfectly.

FOLLOW THE MONEY GRIFT: Is this the real reason the Left is freaking out about the Department of Education?

AMMO GRRRLL identifies phrases and rights she can do without.

WELL, THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS: Elon Musk calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme.

A Ponzi scheme operates by taking money from new investors to pay current investors. That's the definition given by the SEC, and contrary to popular belief, that's exactly how Social Security operates.

The Democrats just don't want you to know....

TRUMP'S 51ST STATE THING MAY BE LOOKING BETTER: Canada is seeing a ‘tsunami’ of illegals fleeing the U.S. due to Trump’s policies.

FROM POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures, Snoopy says it all.

The rest are good too.

FORT MYERS FLORIDA CITY COUNCIL backs down and unanimously approves agreement to cooperate with ICE.

Money, especially loss of it, talks. Loudly.

PANIC HITS DEMOCRATS as Trump goes after their money and infrastructure organized theft.

RETIREES FURIOUS over Social Security in-person ID checks.

Personally, after nearly two years of their completely ignoring my multiple letters, I will be happy to host an in-person visit where I can question their competence....

WWE LEGEND KANE [KNOX COUNTYTN MAYOR GLENN JACOBS] PUSHES FOR BOUT with ‘happy hands’ 'rainbow warrior' Tim Walz.

It should be interesting (if it happens - not likely).

KURT SCHLICHTER: [W]e control federal law enforcement right now. That means we get to set the agenda, and we need to ruthlessly and brutally use the law to defeat our enemies’ outrageous and disgraceful attacks upon patriotic Americans.

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY purged of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Soldiers are soldiers again.

2025 SPRING LEAVES, WEEK 3: We begin this week with our venerable forsythia

which has finally begun to shed its 2024 leaves to bring forth 2025's green ones. About time.

Our usual pond view is dominated this week by the tulip magnolia which is in full flower. As I walked down to the pond today I noticed the blooms are beginning to drop. Hopefully next week there will be leaves showing.

Next up are the barn (with Tuxedo) and fire pit views. The barn is Tuxedo's home-away-from-home. The trees are still leaf-free, but at least the grass is beginning to green up.

Looking north along our road, spring has little to show. The trees are still bare, though in a few places there are some buds beginning to show up in the upper reaches.

Here's our home, soon (hopefully) to be surrounded by green trees and flowers.

Finally here's a view from our community pond. There's nothing to see there yet. All the trees are still bare, the grass, such as it is, still brown, and even the low-lying brush which usually pops up early is still dormant.

Until next week....

JOE BIDEN REMEMBERS to ask his administration what he did in his four years in office.

AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES? Australian universities demand 'emergency meeting' after Trump cancels their funding.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY is ending 2,000 positions due to Trump cuts in foreign aid funding.

The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

I found this quote amusing: "Critics warn that slashing USAID work will affect millions of people." Yeah. Taxpayers. Like me. For the better.

BECAUSE REASONS: Why are young men more conservative?

"THE WORD THAT COMES TO MIND when I think of [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz is: 'buffoon'.”

NBC POLL: Gap between college-educated white women and other white voters is growing.

Umm, what are the most likely majors for 'college-educated' white women? Not STEM, certainly.

MAINE CAVES TO TRUMP, will keep men out of women’s sports.

Money talks....

ELITE EXPERTS ARE NEITHER: 'Experts' have only themselves to blame for the distrust of institutions.

RANDOM THOUGHT: The plethora of nagging health and safety commercials on both television and the internet are almost enough for me to ban both television and the internet from my house.

It may soon be enough....

WHILE WE’RE ABOLISHING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, let’s abolish the teacher unions.

Best idea I've heard yet....

JUDICIAL WARFARE

It's time for the Supreme Court and/or Congress to step in and put this travesty to bed dead.

More (and some history) here.

I’M WONDERING why former NASA astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly [D-AZ] didn't praise SpaceX for rescuing stranded astronauts.

Answer: for the same reason he sold his Tesla -- he's just a Democrat apparatchik.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP: “The EV charging infrastructure in the United States is definitely not ready to handle mass EV adoption. There just aren’t enough chargers and many of the existing ones suffer from reliability and user experience issues. The one shining exception is Tesla’s Supercharger network.”

And the Left, furious with Elon Musk's DOGE, is trying to destroy it....

SCHADENFREUDE: Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer mocks university donation request.

For what it's worth, the university's 2024 endowment is $22.3 billion.

COLUMBIA caves.

Follow the money ... and take it away.

RANDOM THOUGHT: When everything's an alert nothing's an alert. For lack of better things to do in retirement I monitor the weather forecasts in the six locations around the U.S. where I have family using my iPhone's weather app. Every time I check the weather, there is at least one 'alert'; probably 50% of the time every location I check has one of more of these 'alerts':

It's raining; the roads are wet (Gee, I can look out the window).
It's foggy this morning (I know how to drive in fog).
Relative humidity is low; don't burn outdoors (we have a burn pit; water is available).
Wind gusts will blow your things around (in two places I watch 25 mph wind is a light breeze).

Etc., etc. These so-called 'alerts' are stupid and the bozos who produce them need to be fired. Save my tax money; get rid of the government nannies.

KURT SCHLICHTER: "[W]e need to ruthlessly and brutally use the law to defeat our enemies’ outrageous and disgraceful attacks upon patriotic Americans."

Read it all.

SO WHITES CREATED PHYSICS? Physics is racist.

MORE PROGRESSIVE INSANITY: Former MSNBC host Joy Reid garbles American history and claims Canada would beat the U.S. in war.

Believe it or not, Joy Reid is a Harvard graduate.

THEY CAN'T DO MUCH BEYOND WHINING AND RIOTING: Harvard students can't do math.

I WAS RIGHT; the Delta aircraft made a hard landing and the main landing gear collapsed.

ANOTHER DOGE WIN! Inside the now-shuttered federal agency where employees lived ‘like reigning kings’.

Seems to me I read another story about the agency that had a picture of the director at work! sipping wine in his in-office bathtub.

SHE'S TALKING TO A MIRROR: Hillary demands control of information that ‘determines how we think’.

Or is the mirror talking to her? Either way she's clearly in a bubble-wrapped alternate universe.

WHAT A SURPRISE (NOT): The Left knew they were lying to us all along.

PJ MEDIA: the Democrat Party is going away. Here's why.

Linked from X here.

SHOWDOWN AT FOGGY BOTTOM: DOGE uses police to evict barricaded bureaucrats.

I certainly hope they have been fired at a minimum, preferably arrested and jailed.

INSTAPUNDIT ON SUBSTACK: Trump and the lower courts.

DOLPHIN CAM: It's been a long time ... Welcome home.

BEN & JERRY'S has a new ice cream flavor -- Liberal Tears.

STALE CLASS WARFARE AND BOUNDLESS HYPOCRISY. That’s Chuck Schumer.

To be fair, he does hypocrisy very well.

LOVE IT: Greenpeace loses trial, faces bankruptcy extinction.

Couldn't happen to a better organization.

SHOULD PETTY JUDICIAL TYRANTS really be allowed to act as dictators?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER [D-NY]: If you work for a living, you're not a Democrat.

HEH. Build a statue of a cheese-eating surrender monkey and send it to Paris.

RANDOM THOUGHT: What are you reading?

Linked from Fox News.

BIDEN RURAL BROADBAND GURU who accomplished nothing quits because Trump might make progress.

We've been living in our house in the sticks for nearly 10 years and only last week did I see a cable company preparing to put fiber in that 'might' come to our house. Starlink did it in one day when they finally opened up our area to service (and remember Starlink is less than 10 years old -- and they delayed us in order to supply Starlink terminals to Ukraine).

NOBODY'S HOME: What the new Federal Housing/Federal Housing Agency Director found when he went to work is astounding.

TESLAS HAVE 360-DEGREE CAMERAS, YOU KNOW: Elon-hating Tesla trasher is arrested after Tesla owners bring cops the receipts.

THE ERA OF PRESUMING LIBERAL MORAL SUPERIORITY is over.

ENJOY THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST PRISON, Tren De Aragua scumbags.

BARNARD COLLEGE 'POISONED' BY 'DEI PROPAGANDA,' says influencer who uncovered anti-Israel sentiment on campus.

Self-poisoned....

BILL MAHER shuts down Don Lemon's racist comments about black Trump supporters.

I think Don Lemon is himself clearly and obviously a racist bigot.

HARVARD OFFERS FREE TUITION for students whose families make $200K annually.

Harvard also has a $53.2 billion (with a 'B') largely untaxed FY 2024 endowment. My (admittedly jaundiced) view is that they'd rather give it to their own students to spend on and around their own campus than pay the Trump administration a 10%-20% or so annual income/capital gains tax.

Whatever the real reason, it sure as hell isn't 'for the student'.

WATCH: Pod of dolphins greet Crew Dragon as the crew-9 astronauts return from the International Space Station.

You'll have to scroll down a bit for the link to the video.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DEEP STATE CORRUPTION: Minneapolis lawyers plot to help illegal migrants evade ICE in leaked emails.

Keep that grift coming in, baby....

GET RID OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. And keep the states at bay; instead give power to the parents.

THE IMMIGRANTS were allowed in to do the job Americans are increasingly unwilling to do (viz., vote Democrat).

It certainly wasn't for picking cotton.

[ELITE] COLLEGES ARE IN TROUBLE and sudddenly realizing that they have few allies.

Here's a thought.

Faced with falling revenues, universities are announcing across-the-board spending freezes. Instead, they should differentiate between sane departments and those that have lost their way. Departments captured by post-modernists should be cut, to allow adequate funding for others.

'Wokeness' is primarily an infestation of the humanities, but it should be crushed wherever it rears its ugly head.

JOHN STOSSEL: Tax the past.

I thought only the IRS is allowed to tax the past (it's called an audit).

TENNESSEE BILL allows schools to deny enrollment for illegal migrants, but the proposal is panned as unconstitutional.

It's standard liberalism; punish the innocent to protect the guilty.

TOO LATE (AGAIN): Federal judge orders astronauts te returned to the International Space Station.

JAMES CARVILLE HAS GOOD ADVICE: ‘Get over your preening and moral superiority'.

They should be forced to wear sandwich boards saying something like 'preening morally superior idiot' but they would take that as a compliment.

WHY KYRSTEN SINEMA [FORMERLY R-AZ] chose violence against her old Democrat colleagues.

NOT AT ALL: Bill Maher asks Batya Ungar-Sargon if she regrets supporting Trump.

Her strong support of Trump's tariffs is something to behold. My summary: tariffs are the payments required for the privilege of selling your products in the United States.

Another post supporting tariffs.

IMPRIMIS: Restoring American Culture.

It should just be retitled 'Restoring Culture'. It's long but definitely worth reading in entirety.

FRANCE DEMANDS AMERICA: ‘Give Us Back the Statue of Liberty!’

America demands France thank us for their not having to speak German today.

HUNTER BIDEN, beset by legal woes, flees to ... South Africa?

His wife was born in South Africa, so ... does South Africa allow extradition back to the United States?

2025 SPRING LEAVES, WEEK 2: These pictures were taken Saturday morning before the predicted mega-storm that was supposed to destroy our house and wash the remains down to the Gulf of Mexico America. It didn't happen so the reality is that the neighborhood is actually prettier than is implied in the photos. Here are the first two -- my usual pond and barn/fire pit views:

In both, the changes are not yet evident in the photos. The grass is a bit greener, and there is evidence that the trees are beginning to bud out. The real evidence that spring has 'sprung' is the flowers.

The forsythias are typically early bloomers, and the green leaves are now evident. The tulip magnolia is essentially in full flower, but it was colder Saturday morning and the flowers hadn't fully opened. The leaves haven't shown yet

The flowers have popped out all over are beginning to bloom, especially along the road. The roses, though, are just beginning to wake up; by next week I hope to see flowers.

Finally, the trees along our road are showing signs of waking up, but no leaves yet.

VILE: This is how Mediaite chose to frame the successful launch of SpaceX Crew-10 on its mission to rescue stranded NASA astronauts.

These people (and I use that word loosely) are deranged lunatics.

Linked from Red State and they agree with me.

ASK ME IF I CARE: Sen. John Fetterman [D-PA] tells AOC exactly what he thinks of her on fight over the Continuing Resolution.

WELL, WELL: Starvation is caused by an insufficiency of billionaires.

Democrat narrative blown....

TRUMP APPROVAL bouncing back bigly.

I'm still watching, and so far I'm seeing the same thing.

ARE ELITE UNIVERSITIES DOOMED? "I think the elite universities will be a tough nut to crack. And they have enough money to hold out for a very long time."

They may have money, but without students, how influential can they be?

HOW MANY Kamala 'Miss Me Yet' t-shirts have been sold?

WELL, YES. Are the Democrats destroying themselves?

Let's not interfere.

ANOTHER WIN: Senior Islamic State leader's miserable life terminated.

I love winning.

I'M NOT AWARE OF ANYONE TRYING TO STOP HER: The View's Sunny Hostin clains she is 'stuck' in 'racist' America and she wants to leave.

CHUCK SCHUMER [D-NY] CALLS REPUBLICANS 'BASTARDS,' but deep down he knows he got played on the continuing resolution.

And the progressive majority in the Democrat party are furious....

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures is online. Here's my favorite, which comports well with Trump as the bull in the china shop from earlier this year:

It's not quite as good without Steven Hayward at the helm, but still ... go see the rest.

THE LEFT'S UNHINGED WAR ON TESLA has me wanting to buy one.

It's a VIP post (registration required) but I just wanted to note that I'm now looking more favorably at EVs than I have in the past.

TRUMP IS DEWORMING WASHINGTON. Make the parasites work for a living for a change.

WHERE ARE SHERYL CROW AND 'ELVIRA' to condemn violence against Tesla dealerships?

MEDICAL SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENTS defy the end of DEI.

WE CAN HOPE. Is the DOJ'S Pardon Attorney dismissal sign of an investigation into Biden's last-minute pardons?

TERRORISM ON THE LEFT: Liberals want to make it as costly as possible to oppose government hegemony.

Read it all.

WHO'S ON FIRST?

Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" was rarely performed the same way twice, and this version from The Naughty Nineties (1945) is considered their finest recorded rendition.

Enjoy the whole video.

THE NEWS OUT OF SYRIA IS HORRIFIC; it is just what Obama and Biden wanted.

THE COST OF WAR IS COMING DOWN: An army of DIY drones.

AMMO GRRRLL on the importance of manners.

WELL, YES: Is the jig up for elite higher education?

KURT SCHLICHTER: Trump makes his enemies insane.

With all due respect to Schlichter, I think they already were (are) insane.

THE REPUBLICANS NEED TO BUY HER MORE: Jasmine Crockett [D-TX] steps on multiple rakes.

THE ANSWER MUST BE 'YES': Is the jig up for elite higher education?

THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR: Job openings.

RED STATE'S THURSDAY MORNING MINUTE: Bees in bonnets and snooty judges.

You'll have to scroll down to the 'Morning Musing' section, but scroll slowly and enjoy the ride.

IT WOULD BE QUICKER to list those that are non-DEI. Medical schools with DEI offices.

BREAKING NEWS: Great Britain no longer has enough white male combat pilots left to defend their country.

But they have plenty of terrorists....

THE HEADLINES have caught up to Mike Rowe. Now what?

Note: there seems to be a problem with the JWR website's security certificate. Plow ahead anyway.

COLUMBIA PROFESSORS CANCEL CLASSES in solaridarity with pro-Hamas activitist in ICE custody.

So revoke their tenure and fire them.

HISTORY FRIDAY –- The other Alamo.

DEMOCRATS are locked in their own Hell.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CALIFORNIA'S DOOM LOOP: Twenty-somethings abandoning San Francisco even when they can afford it.

FROM ONE WHO'S BEEN THERE: Driving the Alaska highway.

EXCELLENT WORK: Armed citizen intervenes and takes down gunman at auto parts store.

MAYBE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ISN'T SO BAD AFTER ALL: GROK absolutely obliterates this article from The New York Times. That said, the NYT is certainly no challenge for even a modest intelligence.

The original link from Instapundit is here.

POWERLINE: An addition to Parkinson's Law and Robert Conquest's Three Laws of politics.

I DON'T THINK THAT'S A SURPRISE: Democrats are just not normal.

THE X-37B SPACEPLANE lands after helping pave the way for “maneuver warfare”.

FROM POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures, my favorite:

Mostly because I'm still trying to teach my new 'woke' computer to behave itself. That said, go see the rest.

THE DEMOCRATS WON'T: When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

'HOLD OUR BEER': John Fetterman takes aim at his own party in tweet about '#TheResistance'.

Responding to the Democrats' threat to shut the government down in the current budget impasse, Fetterman said "To think I’m going to burn the village down to save it, that’s bonkers."

My thought is that to save the government we must to burn the Democrat village down, crush the rubble, salt the earth underneath, and start fresh with a new party.

HEH: DOGE has the consultant cabal on the run.

THEY'RE CALLED 'DEMOCRATS': Several House members have mental faculties so diminished they can't do their jobs.

SPRING LEAVES: Well, Daylight Savings Time has returned, and so has week 1 as my annual spring leaves photo series begins. Below is a mélange of photos taken from around our property in no particular order.

The iris plants are popping up from hibernation all over (as is the hated clover in the driveways and rock walkways). The driftwood roses along the fence at the road are showing signs of activity, but no leaves or flowers yet. The elephant ears along the walks along the carport wall and fire pit have shown no signs of waking up.

The forsythia bushes, usually our first signs of spring, have begun to show some leaves. The tulip magnolia in our back yard is still sleeping as are the dogwoods on the south side of the house.

Our trees, of which there are far too many, are still dormant -- especially down around the pond. For some reason, they're always late risers.

Here are the pictures, taken more or less at random, around the house. About the only green you'll see are the evergreen pines and a little of the (surviving?) grass.

That's is for this week. Next week will be a bit more organized, perhaps with some green to show....

THE DEMOCRATS are desperate for an image makeover.

PJ MEDIA'S STEPHEN KRUISER: Dumbest TDS hot take of the week ... so far.

AMMO GRRRLL wonders why DOGE is asking for only five things a week.

DEMOCRATS FIGHT to protect a $600 billion Medicaid tax scam that (even) Joe Biden tried to kill.

NEWT GINGRICH: How House Democrats became zombies.

They've always been zombies; it's just that the Biden administration finally made it public.

ACT BLUE CRISIS spells disaster for Democrats' campaign cash.

Its most successful fundraising platform may be going under, which would severely damage its ability to launder straw donations into its campaign coffers.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving organization....

JOBLESS GRIFTER is now broke.

Tough shit, Hunter.

A MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Remember the Alamo!

More Texas history here: Davy Crockett and the geopolitics of the Alamo.

WHAT THE HELL? Just when you thought Democrats couldn’t get any goofier, they post this.

MORE EVIDENCE that Joe Biden was a tiny, petty, vindictive President.

FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Who'll pick the cotton -- er, crops?

LIVING 'RENT-FREE' IN HER HEAD: Border Czar Tom Homan responds to Michelle Wu's 'Shame on You' criticisms.

ONE HEALTH: The New Godless Quasi-Religion that Ranks Humans Below Nature.

Longish, but worthy.

JEFF BEZOS HAS THE TEMERITY to believe that he runs the Washington Post.

I suspect he's right ... and his employees who've been FA'ing will soon FO.

TRUMP WHITE HOUSE 'fixes' bizarre Dem 'Choose Your Fighter' video with one of their own.

HEH. Heh, heh, heh....

STRANDED ASTRONAUT Barry "Butch" Wilmore believes Elon Musk’s claims that Joe Biden refused to conduct rescue mission.

SURPRISED? Democrats are just not normal.

Especially after President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday?

DEMOCRATS READY TO DEFEND DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION just as soon as they figure out what it does.

The Babylon Bee is venturing into journalism again....

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? AI tries to cheat at chess when it’s losing.

Remember, artifical intelligence is only as smart - and honest - as its programmers.

Keep that in mind.

THEY'D BETTER BE: Democrats who derailed Al Green censure could be stripped of House committee roles.

It's time for Republicans to grow high-carbon steel spines and fight back with all their might.

DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMEN just released the most cringe video ever.

I wouldn't have thought they could dig any deeper even with a diesel-powered backhoe....

NEWSMAX: Trump eyes 65 percent staff cut at EPA.

Sixty-five percent isn't enough. Go Elon Musk and go for 80%.

THIS COULD BE HILARIOUS: Could a bombshell discovery render all of Biden's presidential actions 'null and void'?

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: A little instruction on Progressives can be helpful.

More from PJMedia's morning briefing.

TO LITERALLY EFFECTIVE? Where do you go after 'literally Hitler'?

It's Kurt Schlichter, so enjoy the whole thing.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Can Trump revolutionize America?

FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS launch 'resistance' website.

Their website is here; it's probably worth checking into occasionally, just for laughs.

RAISIN' CANE: Ponytailed geezer Al Green [D-TX] chose an obnoxious tantrum to open President Trump's address to the nation.

He was immediately kicked out and will almost certainly be censured by the House of Representatives.

DEMOCRATS: Maybe they should learn from history rather than trying to edit it.

LAWDOG FILES ON SUBSTACK: Social Media.

Linked from this Instapundit post.

OH, NO! The government is paralyzed?

"Our so-called 'journalist' class is made up almost entirely of toadies and liars."

AMERICAN GREATNESS: Who really politicized the Pentagon?

Democrats.

AMMO GRRRLL: positively beyond parody.

Even the Babylon Bee is having trouble satirizing progressive insanity reality.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Who caused the counter-revolution?

START BY TURNING THE TELEVISION OFF: How you can watch the 2025 Oscars live.

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TULSI GABBARD: The biggest national security threat is not what we’ve been told.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES 'High Five' edition has posted. Here are two of my favorites.

There are so many good ones this week I had a hard time choosing just two. Go see the rest.

NUKE WASHINGTON DC AND START OVER IN KANSAS: NSA turned into ‘a cult hellbent on pushing gender ideology’.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (NPR) does not have a right to taxpayer money.

Sen John Kennedy [R-LA] explains why.