"About The Drones!" (opens in separate window)

are the years of madness ending?

friday, december 20th, 2024

Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated -- to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world.

One reason so many are welcoming Trump’s return is the universally desperate hope that his election spelled an end to a collective madness at home and its ripples abroad during the last four years. And why not?

Leftism is not simply a warped ideology, but it is in fact a criminal mentality.

Nations overseas had never quite witnessed anything like the lethal August 2021 American flight from Afghanistan. That utter humiliation and impotence of the U.S. military likely signaled to Russia there would be no consequences if it invaded Ukraine -- and it did; to Iran that it could now unleash Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel -- and it did; and to China that it could daily threaten Taiwan and send a spy balloon across the United States with impunity -- and it did.

The result was the current global chaos perhaps not seen since the late 1930s when a confused United States was similarly a bystander to the rise of bellicose regimes and wars. The Biden administration shrugged that the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the South China Sea, the Straits of Hormuz, and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea all became dangerous to the U.S. Navy and unsafe to world shipping.

A disparate group of nuclear and near-nuclear powers—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran -- are either at war with Western allies or threatening war with them. Their confidence was predicated on the assumption that the U.S. after 2020 was engaged in a Maoist-like cultural revolution that warred on its own security, energy, military, universities, and social unity -- and would continue with a second Biden term.

The Biden-era cultural revolution has done great damage to the United States. The U.S. border was systematically and deliberately destroyed to allow some 10-12 million illegal entrants to pour into the U.S. without legality or background checks. Never has an outgoing administration spitefully sold taxpayer-purchased border wall material for pennies on the dollar -- rather than see it used for the purposes for which it was purchased.

Never had the U.S. experienced such an immigrant surge. And never had more than 50 million, and over 15 percent of the resident American population been foreign-born.

Why did Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas erase the border? What madness and hate drove them to dismantle federal immigration law? Was it sheer nihilism? Or a desperate but calculated effort to alter American demography for political purposes?

For four years, the public, elected officials, and pundits have all warned that Joe Biden was dangerously cognitively challenged and indeed completely unfit to fulfill the duties of the presidency.

A long-suffering nation winced as Biden slurred his words, spoke in unintelligible sound bites, stood frozen and mute, screamed at and libeled half the country, tripped, fell, wandered aimlessly, became bewildered, and more or less proved a global embarrassment. All knew Biden was not able to run the country; yet none knew exactly who was actually in charge of America in his stead. The Obamas? Leftists like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, the Squad, Jill Biden, and the Biden staff?

Our allies worried that the usually resilient American president was now all but demented. Our enemies enjoyed these leaderless years of opportunity. And the left serially misled the public that the decrepit Biden, whom they feared in private was senile, was “dynamic”, “energic”, and “fit as a fiddle”.

Never has a president so deserved to be removed by the 25^th Amendment or through impeachment and conviction. And never has even his inner circle finally but silently agreed as they left office, the very enablers who had done their political best to mask his dementia for four long years.

Rarely have the FBI, the CIA, the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the Pentagon become weaponized and so flagrantly and with impunity broken the law, abandoned their mission statements, and served political agendas rather than the American people. Not since the J. Edgar Hoover era has the FBI hierarchy serially-lied under oath, stonewalled Congress, forged a court affidavit, or partnered with the media to suppress the news. Has the FBI ever raided an ex-president’s home, spied on parents at school board meetings, monitored Catholics, or tried to terrify and harass pro-life activists?

Never has the justice system, from local to state to national jurisdictions, so systematically and coordinately, sought to bankrupt, render inert, and jail an ex-president and current presidential candidate.

Never has a presidential family so brazenly profited by selling its influence to foreign interests. Never has it used the powers of the FBI and DOJ to cover up its crimes and to ensure the family filial bagman would be for years exempted by the DOJ and later pardoned by the president himself, the father of the family miscreant and privy to the family syndicate’s illegal activities.

Seldom has a president and his administration sought to fuel a veritable cultural revolution to change the fabric of the nation by institutionalizing a third, transexual gender, violating civil rights law, and systematically admitting, hiring, and promoting Americans on the basis of their race and gender.

Never since the Civil War era had local and state insurrectionist governments established 600 nullification zones, in which they vowed to break federal law and consider it null and void within their jurisdictions. Never have rioters looted, burned, killed, assaulted, and occupied large swaths of cities for over 120 days, and largely with impunity.

Never had the U.S. Treasury borrowed so much money so quickly and owed $37 in national debt—and been so intent on borrowing continuously nearly $2 trillion a year in annual deficits.

Never has a political party sought to systematically violate long-standing traditions, customs, and often the law itself to destroy a political opponent: hiring a foreign national to spread smears among the media and bureaucracies, impeaching a president twice, trying an ex-president in the Senate, seeking to remove a presidential candidate from 16 state ballots, using five different judicial jurisdictions to try an ex-president, and serially so defaming a candidate and ex-president as a dictator, fascist, and Nazi to create a climate that encouraged two near-miss assassination attempts on him.

In sum, for the last four years, the world has watched aghast as the United States lost its collective mind and became a radical Jacobin revolutionary society.

So why is there not a sense of almost ecstatic relief, not just among conservatives but even among Democrats, that the years of darkness and madness are ending?

The global public believes that the United States will again become lawful, have a secure border, return as a beacon of free-market economics, protect its allies, deter its enemies, win over its neutrals, return to the rule of law, restore the professionalism and prestige of its government agencies, check predatory nations abroad with a new deterrent military, and prepare to lead the world in energy production, exploration of space, and scientific and technology development.

Summed up, the welcomed counterrevolution is one of restoration—to dream again that nothing is impossible, and the dreary age of stasis, envy, cynicism, and nihilism is ending, replaced again by a world without limits. No one knows quite what is ahead, but all know that it is at least better already than the current nightmare.

© 12.16.2024 by Victor Davis Hanson, "American Greatness". (H/T Pastor Tom)

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8:45a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, skipped the two 50mg Tramadol but took a 250mg Bayer Aspirin for various pains, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, scanned the weather and news, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" after the coffee was ready.

A very cold 26°, heavily overcast, expecting light snow, but I had a smoke in the open garage anyway, fed the squirrels, and closed the garage quickly. Too frigging cold! As soon as the snow hits Adams County, just to our west, it falls apart/ dissipates and we get zip. Darnit. The skies cleared around 11a, and we had a 'balmy' 37° afternoon.

Sherry stopped by around 2p, and we had a couple of nice hours together, as usual, and left for home, just before dark. I made a Roast Beef, Mayo, Horseradish, Slaw, Lettuce, Tomato & Swiss Cheese on Rye Sandwich & Tater Tots for dinner, and watched the evening news, before switching-over to Discovery's "Gold Rush" for the evening. Lights out at midnight.

Up at 8:30a on Saturday, a cloudy, bitter cold 22°, forecast to hit only 36° for the day. A Wintry mix is coming for tomorrow midday and into the evening. Swell; can't mess-up my 9a Monday app't. I made coffee, had Poached Eggs In a Bowl w/ Toast for breakfast, checked eMail and scanned the weather and news. I rescheduled my Weis Market food shopping trip to Monday, after the 9a Jeep app't.

I had a couple errands and condo chores to do, and by late afternoon, rechecked the news, made a light dinner and watched Discovery's "Expedition X" until 11:30p, and quit for the day.

Up at 7:30a on Sunday, a very cold 23°, cloudy, rain/snow forecast overnite and into the morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, planned breakfast for later, and fired-up the HP Desktop to get the news and weather. After the morning's shave and shower, I did 2 loads of laundry, a load of dishes, watered my 2 orchids and basil plant, readied the recycle bin to go out, and bagged-up the week's garbage, for a neighbor's shared bin. The snow arrived around 4:15p, and we got maybe ¼". Even in the dark, it was nice. Rain and sleet followed and continued into the night. After dinner, I watched Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" until 11p, and bagged it for the night. Up early tomorrow; busy day.

Awake at 4:30a, I went back to sleep, and finally got up at 5:30, ahead of the 6a alarm, to a very foggy, 35°, not-so-cold, snow mostly gone morning. I upped the heat, made coffee, had a smoke in the not-so-cold garage, and tuned into the "CS Show LIVE". With the glaring exception of searing pain in my right foot, r/s buttock and leg, I felt fine. I took 2 50mg Tramadol, since the Bayer was only working marginally. I skipped breakfast, and will have lunch when I get back from the Jeep Service app't from 9-11, and the 2 stops in Dallastown (cleaners) and back in East York (pharmacy). I got ready for the day, and left at 8:20a.

Drones all over the country? And overseas, too? They're either *ours* or *theirs*. Duh, but ***WHY***, is the $6.4M question. Dirty bombs? The disappearance of over 80 nuclear warheads from Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union? Are there one of more, here in the US, strategically positioned to destroy American population centers? Or just sow chaos, bewilderment and apprehension nationwide, as it's doing now?

Thornton Jeep had my 2019 Grand Cherokee HEMI V8 finished by 10:30, and I had 2 more stops before going home. Back finally by 1p, I unloaded, as a Weis Market delivery truck arrived and off-loaded 6 bags/boxes of the groceries I'd ordered (on a whim) 2 days ago. Nice job, Weis Market! And I got all that stuff unpacked and into the 'fridge and freezer.

After dinner, I watched the evening news and switched to History's "Ancient Aliens" until about 11p, and bagged it for the day.

Up at 8:30a on Tuesday, a warmer-than-normal 48°, cloudy morning, forecast to get to 59° or so. I made coffee, fired-up the desktop machine, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" until 12noon. The drone story crap is still running wild, but so-called "experts" are weighing-in, with more idiocy. I'm sure the new opinions are meant to assuage Americans' fear of lost nukes, somewhere in population centers. Nothing will 'answer' the drone mystery, except the TRUTH, and we'll probably never get that.

The Biden admin has spent $3 billion on electric mail trucks. Only 93 have been built. They also spent $7.5B on electric vehicle charging stations. Only 7 have been built. Natch. I lounged around ail;l morning, until just before noon, got ready for the day and a 2p haircut/beard trim, and left at 1;25p.

On the way home, I stopped at the local Weis Market to get a couple things I'd missed with the online order, a few days ago. 45mins later, I was home and unpacking $100 worth of stuff. I still can't get my HP DeskJet 1660 Printer to work, after screwing-up my computer w/ an accidental Win-7 Pro x64 HD reload/ overwrite, but I'm still trying to install it, but with zero results. Heh, maybe Ryley Tech from MBIT can figure it out, when he stops by on Friday. I had some condo chores to do in the afternoon, made dinner, watched the news and switched over to the History Channel's "Curse of Oak Island" and Weather Channel's "Weather Gone Viral". Lights out at 11:30p.

Up at 8a on Wednesday, I upped the heat to 75°, made coffee, took 2 50mg Tramadol for bad, R/S buttock (Sciatica nerve) pain, had a smoke in the garage, fed the squirrels & bluejays, and tuned into th "CP Show LIVE". A nice, sunny 41° morning, so far, but cooler temps and rain coming this afternoon and evening. Hey, it's Winter! The Kona Coffee was so good, as usual, I made another Chemex carafe. I re-checked AccuWeather.com's maps and found the ***massive*** storm system, coming from the Southwest to the Northeast, getting ready to slam into this area, in a couple of hours. Well, it'll clean-off the roads, and isn't snow -- that's to the north and west -- so it's OK. Not that we have any control over the weather, as my InterNet-famous saying goes: "Mother Nature's In Charge, We're Just Along For The Ride". Meh.

After lunch, Sherry stopped by around 1p, and we had 3 wonderful hours together, as usual, but as it got dusk early due to heavy cloud cover, and rain beginning, she left just after 4. The serious rain started around 5, and continued well after midnight. Temps were dropping into the mid-39a, so I closed down early, watched the evening news, and switched to History's "American Pickers" until 12 midnight. Good night, Irene.

Awake and up at 8:15a on Thursday, a cloudy, cold 39° start to the morning, with snow on the way, I upped the heat, made coffee, and scanned the weather reports and news headlines. I had a couple smokes in the garage, fed the squirrels and bluejays and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" until noon. Quiet day in the condo complex, except for various delivery vans, considering the new Amazon strike. I've got all of my orders delivered, so no worries.

For the past 2-3 weeks, the news has been all about the "drones". Now, it's all about the "CR" (Continuing Resolution) in the corrupt US Congress, specifically-designed for 2-3 weeks of temporary spending so the US Gov't doesn't shut down. And the eye-watering report from the corrupt, leftist WH: "Biden health cover-up blown wide open in bombshell report: Joe was senile from day one of his presidency." WE all knew Lunch Bucket Joe had dementia, but the WH denied it and covered it up, almost on a daily basis.

I had a few errands to do, after some 6oz Jumbo Lump Maryland Crab Cakes for lunch, and with temps dropping quickly, got home and closed the condo. I made another carafe of Kona Coffee, and had a Stack of French Toast for dinner. (Haven't had that for several years).

The (US Govt's) "CR" BS headlined the evening news, and I noted that the three channels that I usually watch -- History, Discovery and Motor Trend -- had "NBC" (Nothing But Crap) on, for the evening. I had some computer work to do, and called it an early night, around 11p.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal" and, except for my cleaning lady in on Tuesday (her choice) and Christmas at mid-week, it's a clear week. The 'huge staff' here, and I, wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy & Healthy 2025.

Deportation Plans Don’t Exist To Please Migrants.

President-elect Trump hasn’t even taken office again and the chattering classes are already having a meltdown about what they see as the mass deportations” will produce.

A significant amount of the pearl-clutching is based on claims that it’s somehow cruel to deport who happened to have avoided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) long enough to put down roots in the United States. This is an utterly illogical argument and one that would never be tolerated in connection with any other crime or civil violation.

This specious argument persists because people who advocate for illegal aliens deliberately misrepresent U.S. immigration law. They insist that illegal aliens have a plethora of rights that must be protected. They portray a hearing before an immigration judge as a “trial.” And they lead the public to believe that a deportation order is a “punishment” akin to a criminal sentence. But none of this is actually true.

As far as rights go, way back in 1892, the Supreme Court held that, with regard in removal proceedings, “the decisions of executive or administrative officers, acting within powers expressly conferred by Congress are due process of law.” In plain English, that means that immigration violators are entitled to a hearing before the Immigration Court and to the appellate process set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

A hearing before the Immigration Court isn’t a trial. It’s an administrative proceeding where the alien facing deportation is given an opportunity to show cause why he or she should not be removed from the U.S. In fact, the document summoning immigration violators to their hearing in front of an immigration judge used to be called an

There are essentially four questions that have to be answered in an immigration proceeding: 1) Is the person in the dock an alien? 2) If so, does the alien have permission to be in the United States? 3) Did the alien violate the requirements of the INA? 4) Is there any relief from deportation available to the alien?

The arguments before the immigration judge take place in a courtroom. And to a non-lawyer, they probably look a lot like the criminal proceedings one sees on Law & Order. Legally speaking, however, they’re closer to a driver’s license revocation proceeding than they are to a murder trial. The ultimate question isn’t one of guilt or innocence, it’s whether the alien was given license to enter and remain in the U.S.

Moreover, immigration proceedings are civil in nature, not criminal. Deportation isn’t a punishment. It’s a process for removing people who don’t have any right to be in the United States and sending them back to their country of citizenship. Think of it as evicting a trespasser.

Most people who come home and find two strangers in their basement call the police and have them taken away. They don’t offer to feed the interlopers, pay for their college education, and provide medical coverage for life.

But the people who make their living advocating for “immigrant rights” don’t want you to know any of this. They would much rather portray foreign law breakers as innocent victims of an unjust system. But that simply isn’t the case. And, quite frankly, you’d be hard-pressed to find a fairer, more humane immigration system anywhere in the world.

The reason our immigration system looks like it’s not functioning very well isn’t that it’s outdated, broken, unfair or otherwise inadequate. It’s suffering from a profound lack of enforcement. Too many administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have selectively ignored any parts of the INA they didn’t like.

That sends a bad message to would-be border jumpers – break the law and you will be rewarded for it. But, as judges and parents know all too well, when you reward bad behavior you only encourage more of it. And sadly, our immigration system regularly rewards law-breakers.

Aliens who avoid DHS for long enough and claim their removal would cause undue hardship to their families can apply for Cancellation of Removal. If an immigration judge approves the application they are magically transformed from illegals to lawful permanent residents. Temporary Protected Status persists for decades after the emergencies for which it was invoked. And elected leaders regularly create unlawful programs like DACA and the CHNV parole program. Is it any wonder foreigners are streaming over the border?

That approach doesn’t fly in other types of legal proceedings. If you steal your neighbor’s Mercedes, there isn’t a court in the land that’s going to let it slide just because you really love the car and have grown attached to the bucket seats upholstered in fine, Corinthian leather.

So, don’t listen to those who are more concerned about foreign law-breakers than the safety and security of their citizen neighbors. And don’t buy into the absurd argument that we, as a nation, are obligated to consult with illegal aliens and make sure we aren’t inconveniencing them when we enforce the INA.

After all, if this country is so unkind and disrespectful of migrant rights, why does half the world want to relocate here?

© 12.19.2024 by Matt O'Brien, "American Thinker".