They Got It Wrong

I have been watching (and reading) some of the reports about the protests against tariffs and other Trump actions. That doesn’t bother me as it’s everyone’s right to protest, whether I (and others) agree or disagree with them. I can’t tell from what reports I’ve seen how many have been at the protests.

However, the one thing I noticed was quite a few signs stating that Trump and DOGE would be cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. That is partially true, but not the way I think these protesters are implying.

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits will be cut...for those who aren’t eligible for them, receiving them fraudulently. That includes those who are well over 120 years of age, illegal immigrants who aren’t eligible , and ‘ghost’ recipients who are collecting benefits for multiple people who are deceased, i.e. their deaths were never reported to federal government. The fraudulent payments are projected to total in the billions of dollars which means those who are receiving the benefits due to them are being ripped off.

Either those making these claims about cut in benefits to legitimate recipients are believing this erroneous information or are lying themselves.

I am not focusing on the tariff issue as I have already made my opinion about them known. But I am going to add this one last thing about DOGE that I saw elsewhere:

It’s wild to see people who have been robbing us blind trying to justify being upset at us catching them.

Is DOGE the only way we can get our federal spending under control? I hate having to say this, but it may be our last hope. Congress certainly isn’t going to do it as they have no real incentive to do so. Too many in Congress are compromised, not because they are evil but more that they ‘owe’ others ‘favors’ in exchange for helping them get elected. Some are evil, seeing the budget as a means of filling their pockets and those of their friends and families. I wish it weren’t so, but there are far too many members of Congress that have become quite wealthy, taking in far more money than their salaries and speaking fees can account for.

Call me cynical...because I am.

Friday (Scary) Funny - My Reflection Moves By Itself

Thoughts On A Sunday

Old Man Winter has been showing us he isn’t quite done yet, sending snow, sleet and freezing rain our way since early yesterday. While we haven’t seen much more than an inch of snow here at The Gulch, there has been quite a bit of sleet and mixed in with some freezing rain now and then. A close friend of mine in a town northwest of here has received over 6 inches of snow. However, another friend living just north of New Haven, Connecticut was telling me it was 76ºF down her way yesterday while we were getting the snow and sleet. And so it goes in New England.

The roads are slick, hence our church canceling in-person services and resorting to an online church service this morning.

But wait, there’s more!

It looks like all of this precipitation will be changing to rain sometime tonight with some of it being heavy. I have no doubt the snow and sleet will all be melted and washed away by tomorrow’s rains.

==+++++==

What happens when men are denigrated, marginalized, stuck with nonsensical “toxic masculinity” accusations, told they aren’t needed, are blamed for all the ills in the world, and deemed expendable in this modern world?

For some men it means nothing. They soldier on, ignoring the vicious and ignorant diatribes. For others it means they see themselves as nothing but a burden and withdraw from society. And for others, it means they see themselves as useless and they end themselves, slowly through drug and alcohol abuse or quickly through suicide. What’s worse is that some of the more vacuous members of our crumbling society see it as a good thing.

What many of those vacuous members seem to overlook is that without men, modern civilization and all its amenities will die. As one commenter on the linked post explained it:

What amuses me is how many modern women believe the trope that "they don't need men."

But then their car breaks down or a pipe springs a leak or their house needs a new roof or...well, you get the idea. They also don't seem to understand that it is those 'men they don't need' that make their comfy lives possible, that build and maintain the infrastructure upon which they are totally dependent.

The willful blindness about these issues both baffles and disappoints me. This is something that can come back to bite those same ‘vacuous members’ in the butt.

==+++++==

Could it be that preventing and treating Parkinson’s Disease is as simple as taking extra B vitamins?

Researchers have suspected for some time that the link between our gut and brain plays a role in the development of Parkinson's disease.

A recent study identified gut microbes likely to be involved and linked them with decreased riboflavin ( vitamin B2) and biotin (vitamin B7), pointing the way to an unexpectedly simple treatment that may help: B vitamins.

"Supplementation of riboflavin and/or biotin is likely to be beneficial in a subset of Parkinson's disease patients, in which gut dysbiosis plays pivotal roles," Nagoya University medical researcher Hiroshi Nishiwaki and colleagues wrote in their paper published in May 2024.

It’s seems to be turning out that a number of degenerative diseases may be tied to the human gut biome. If Parkinson’s can be prevented or treated via nutrition, be it by supplements or a change in diet or both, then this is groundbreaking.

There has also been some connection suggested between gut biome and Alzheimer’s. If that is also the case then we might see the scourge and heartbreak of Alzheimer’s disappear.

==+++++==

Oh, yeah, this will be a winning team for the Democrats to push an increasingly Socialist agenda.

There are just some things so ridiculous they defy parody. Putting 83-year-old-shakes-fists-at-clouds, communist Bernie Sanders or finds-math-hard AOC as the new face of the Democratic Party for 2028 is even beyond The Babylon Bee’s imagination.

Who knew this Marxist interpretation of Burns and Allen would be traveling the nation on an “Embrace Covetousness Tour” so soon after the majority of citizens made it clear that it rejects Leftwing ideology which, over the last several decades, has made life worse for proletariat while delivering goodies to the Inner Party.

--snip--

The AOC/Bernie populism goes about promoting values — like males can be women by declaring it — that an overwhelming majority, even among Democrats, reject.

Kinda puts lie to populism, eh?

So, the cabal that runs the DNC has decided to double and triple down on a narrative that a growing number of Democrats are rejecting, figuring that somehow it will return them to power? As I have asked before, will the Democrat Party end up going the way of the Whigs?

==+++++==

It seems that Germany is suddenly taking military spending and readiness seriously. Is it the Trump Effect?

During his first term, President Donald Trump was mocked when he wanted our European allies to spend more on their defense while relying less on Russian energy. Ironically, After Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many European countries moved in the direction Trump tried to get them to move years earlier. Conversations about Europe in the leaked text did not appear to be what Europe wanted to hear either. The Europeans may be starting to get the message that they need to increase their own capabilities instead of taking advantage of their arrangement with the US.

Germany has increased military spending, meeting the 2% of GDP required under NATO and slowly exceeding that amount. It has also been providing more military equipment and armaments to Ukraine. The first is something that Trump brought up during his first term, castigating our European allies for not meeting their military spending commitments and coming to depend increasingly on the US military umbrella and the US taxpayers that pay for it all. It looks like that is coming to an end as other NATO nations have been increasing their military spending and readiness as well.

==+++++==

So, how did the “We Hate Elon And Tesla” protests on Saturday go for the Left?

Not so great.

The left built up March 29th as some epic, anti-Elon Musk, anti-Tesla day of rage… The so called “protests” turned out to be complete and total flops.. Not only was attendance at these hate rallies much lower than the left was expecting, but these bone headed communists needed to read their chants off large font scripts, you know like Hollywood liberal actors.. What a complete and total failure!

Not that I really expected there to be a big turnout or the effects the Left was hoping for. It looks like the whole thing can be summed up with one word:

“Meh.”

‘Nuff said…

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rain has been just rain for the past few minutes, the ice has melted away on the trusty RAM 1500, and where Monday is returning...again.

Save The Movies And The Theaters

Movie ticket sales have been dropping for years. Part of that can be laid at the feet of Hollywood because they decided to go woke and started making preachy movies that no one wanted to see. So what does one of the ‘Hollywood’ magazines, Variety, suggest as a way to solve the problem?

Allow patrons to smoke pot and text during the movie.

Really? They think that will fix the problem rather than showing movies people actually want to see? This, just when I thought they couldn’t possibly get any stupider.

“Imagine how much better Barbie or Deadpool & Wolverine would be if you could see it” while smoking a joint, asks Variety rhetorically. “Selling weed could bring fresh revenue and new customers to theaters.”

What?

Both of those movies were monster hits, the top grossers of their respective years. Who in their right mind believes allowing pot smoking and texting in the theater would have improved their box office?

Granted, Variety’s idea is to have exclusive screenings for potheads and texters. Nevertheless, the entire theater will still stink of that crap.

Here’s Variety lobbying for texting: “Although cinephiles might object, if movie theaters want to attract younger audiences who refuse to give up their devices during the two-hour running time of most films, they might need to stop banning phones.”

Of course Variety does ignore something that would stop the smoking of pot in theaters, that being that smoking in theaters, be it tobacco or pot, is illegal in most states. But what they’re really trying to sell us is that the only way to make gawdawful movies palatable is if the movie patrons are stoned. However, I have an ever better idea.

Start making movies that people actually want to see rather than the crap that’s been coming out of Hollywood over the past few years or so. Then the theaters would be full, the concession stands would be doing well, and the studios would stop losing money.

As I have mentioned before, Hollywood fell into a similar trap back in the late 60’s and unto the mid-70’s. They started making so-called ‘message’ movies that tried to preach to their audience rather than entertain them. The moviegoers stayed away in droves and the studios lost money on those stinkers. Then they stopped making those movies and returned to entertaining their audiences with great movies. One of those was Star Wars which came out in 1977 and was an absolute smash hit.

The ‘message’ movie was dead...until woke Hollywood decided to give it another go. It seems like it will have to learn the same lesson it did back in the 70’s, but with a modern twist. That lesson?

“Get woke. Go broke.”

Friday Funny - Things You Can Say About Your Car, But Not Your...

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s officially spring and Lake Winnipesaukee and other bodies of water in the area are showing that as the ice covering them recedes. I noticed there were more openings in the ice on Winnipesaukee and open water in a some of the coves and along one of the state beaches. Fortunately I haven’t seen any stranded bob-houses out on the ice, at least not on the southern part of the lake. It would be difficult and dangerous to retrieve them if there were as the ice is quite thin and incapable of supporting much weight.

It was quite warm yesterday, having reached the mid-50’s here. However, that warm weather has been driven out and it was in the low 20’s this morning along with some brisk winds. There’s snow forecast for tomorrow though not large amounts. Here at the lake we might see between 1 and 3 inches before it’s all over and even then most of that snow will accumulate on the grass and not the roads...maybe. The rest of the week looks like it will be closer to normal temperatures for late March – in the mid to upper 40’s – with some chances of rain here and there.

==+++++==

I’ve been seeing this meme pop up here and there, both on blogs and FB posts and there is a ring of truth about it. There are variations but they all pretty much say the same thing. (I wish I could post one of the pictures of the meme, but Blogger still won’t let me post pictures.)

We disagreed with a Anheuser-Busch’s values, so we stopped buying Bud Light.

The Left disagrees with Elon Musk regarding DOGE, so they decide to vandalize and set Teslas on fire, shoot at Tesla dealerships, and dox Tesla owners.

We are not the same.

‘Nuff said.

==+++++==

In line with above comes this from Washington State where a man chased down and blockaded a woman’s car, then accosted her because she was driving a Tesla.

Seeing the video, watching his actions, and seeing that the man was masked, my reaction would have likely been pulling my piece and telling the miscreant to get down on the ground. I then would have called the police to report an attempted carjacking.

==+++++==

Yeah, I’ve been hearing this line from Democrats for decades now and it’s just as phony today as it was “way back when”.

“One of the Swamp’s favorite debating tricks is to pretend that the only way to meaningfully cut the deficit is to cut Social Security.”

That’s the lazy way and it always gets folks riled up. That’s why they make that claim. It’s also a blatant lie.

The way to do it is to cut all the “waste, fraud, and abuse” line items through the entire budget. Of course if we leave that to Congress it will never get done, or if they actually try it will take them years and even then they might only get rid of 10 percent of that “waste, fraud, and abuse”...while adding on 20 percent more in the process.

And the Democrats wonder why so many Americans support DOGE.

==+++++==

Is it time to change the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War?

In what can only be described as an unusual move, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has sparked debate over potentially renaming the Department of Defense back to its original name: the Department of War.

Hegseth took to X to conduct an informal poll that garnered roughly 170,000 votes in just 18 hours. The results show Americans narrowly prefer "Department of War” over “Department of Defense.”

While I like the idea I do have to ask this question: How much will it cost to do so? Signs will need to be changed. Stationery will need the letterhead changed as will many publications.

I think it would be better if we don’t make the change because we’re trying to cut government spending, right?

==+++++==

Is this yet another sign that Europe is becoming more of an Islamic state?

Middle school students assigned book that glorifies jihad and the Islamic State.

What did the EU think would happen if they allowed large numbers of Muslim immigrants into their respective counties? Many of them are already seeing the negative effects with so-called “No Go” zones in some towns and cities, a rapidly increasing number of rapes of women being committed by Muslim immigrant males, the push for Sharia to replace long standing laws, attacks on Christians and churches. I have to wonder just how much longer the EU will exist if they don’t stop this madness.

==+++++==

Here’s one from the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department.

It seems Australian universities are urging the Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency after the Trump administration has informed them that funding from the US taxpayer will likely end.

The US has been funding Australian universities?

One particular quote from within the Sky News article below seemingly encapsulates the mindset of the situation in the land down under:

AUSTRALIA […] Last week after it was revealed the universities had been asked to justify their funding, the National Tertiary Education Union called on the government to “guarantee Australian researchers would be protected”.

“The federal government must push back on the Trump administration’s blatant foreign interference in our independent research in the strongest possible terms,” NTEU president Alison Barnes said.

One would think the NTEU would be happy for an enhanced opportunity for “independent research.”

Excuse me? Whose money is it and why is the US in any way obligated to fund Australian universities? It’s one thing if the research being performed was being done on the behalf of the US government. But it’s sounding like this is not the case.

Entitled and arrogant much, are they?

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ice is slowly breaking up, winter isn’t really over yet, and where Monday will prove that with some snow.

I Hate Greatly Dislike Windows 11

How can I put this delicately?

I detest Windows 11.

First, I have to state that there are only two computers in The Gulch that use Windows, both of them being laptops I use for work and came from my employer. The first is an almost eight-year old Lenovo P50 which originally came with Windows 7 and was later upgraded to Windows 10. The second is a Lenovo P16 laptop that is replacing the P50. It came with Windows 11 and I really don’t like it, “it” being Windows 11.

The other four computers at The Gulch use Linux, with a Lenovo W510 laptop and my 12-year old HP Pavilion tower using Ubuntu, and the two newer mini-PCs from Ace Magic running Linux Mint which uses Ubuntu as its base.

The only problem I ever had with Linux was with my laptop which wouldn’t boot properly after a Linux update. It was easily fixed when I used a bootable USB key to force another update which fixed the problem.

I received the new work laptop about 3 weeks ago and have been spending my own time on weekends configuring it and loading the programs I needed in order to do my job. The new User Interface (UI) looks nice, but it isn’t really all that intuitive, particularly if I need to look for a specific program that does not appear in the ‘Start’ window. One thing I liked about both Windows 7 and Windows 10 is that the ribbon that opened when when the ‘Windows’ key was pressed made it easy to find even rarely used programs. That’s not true with Windows 11.

One of the biggest problems I’ve had is that some programs I use under Windows 10 don’t/won’t work in Windows 11 without a lot of tweaking. I’m still struggling with a couple that I use all the time.

Another problem was configuring the display settings so the dual displays I use will show my desktop properly. It isn’t as straightforward as with Windows 10 or Linux. A co-worker has been struggling with this problem for over a week now as it seems that his laptop, the same model as mine, doesn’t seem to remember the settings and he has to reset them every time he boots his laptop. I haven’t had that problem, but it has taken a lot of time to get the displays set up the way I like. Neither Windows 10 or Linux had that issue.

I have found that the Office 365 suite on my new laptop does have a few quirks, but nothing major. The only thing that surprised me was that the ‘new’ Outlook isn’t nearly as friendly as the version I’ve been using on my old laptop. This isn’t just my opinion as I have asked others I know who are using Windows 11 and they made the same observation.

It seems Microsoft has forgotten the lesson of Windows 8. It was an awful version of windows, the UI set up more top look and act like a tablet even though the computer it was being used on wasn’t a tablet and didn’t have a touch screen. That’s the reason Windows 8.1 was released as people liked the ‘old’ UI used on Windows 7. Windows 10 returned to that UI. Why Microsoft thinks they have to redesign the UI with every new version is necessary baffles me. I can see a tweak here and there if there is a problem, but why change everything if what you have works and works well?

And so it goes.

Friday Funny - When You Realize You're An Old Fart

Thoughts On A Sunday

While the calendar says spring doesn’t start until the end of the week, spring weather is certainly here. We saw almost 60ºF yesterday and might see that today despite the cloudy weather and rain we’re going to experience today. It’s meant I haven’t had to crank up the temperature on the thermostat nearly as high as usual, and not at all on the second floor thermostat.

However, I know that Old Man Winter can throw us a curve now and then with a Spring snowstorm. We certainly saw that last April when we experiences a Nor’easter that dropped almost a foot of snow here at the lake. It knocked out power here at The Gulch for almost two days. (Thank goodness for the Official Weekend Pundit Generator which kept the lights and heat on!)

But for now it looks like it will be pretty decent weather with rain here and there over the next few days. The snow banks are melting away, but I think they’re still going to be around for a couple of weeks at least.

==+++++==

This certainly doesn’t surprise the Conspiracy Theorists in the least.

It turns out the lockdowns during Covid were neither needed or effective.

That isn’t news to me seeing as how countries that neither locked down or took draconian measures such as mandatory masking and vaccinations to prevent the spread of Covid - Sweden and Denmark coming to mind – had nowhere near the number of cases or deaths seen per capita that were seen in countries that did.

‘Nuff said.

==+++++==

Yeah, this isn’t good news.

Syria’s President Signs New Constitution Establishing the Country as an Islamic State

There is not much that can be said in favor of the Assad regime in Syria, but it did generally protect the rights of Christians, Alawites, and others who were not Sunni Muslims. Those days, however, are gone forever. In recent weeks, every day brings new evidence of the violent persecution of Alawites and Christians in Syria, and there is no end in sight. And now the country’s interim president, former (and possibly current) jihad leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, has signed a provisional constitution that could seal the second-class status of religious minorities in Syria, as it establishes the country as an Islamic state.

I figure the persecution of Alewites and Christians will continue, if not escalate. I figure we’ll also start seeing public executions of members of the LGBTQ+ community, be it by hanging or being thrown off a roof like happens in Iran.

==+++++==

Has the federal Department of Education actually improved educational outcomes?

This is a question I would like to see answered, too. As I have read in a couple of different places, the US used be be #1 in education in 1976. This is before the Department of Education came into being. Almost 5 decades later we’re now #40 and falling.

What evidence is there that the federal Department of Education, or that the Democrats being in charge of education, has had any positive effect on actual student achievement? We previously noted then candidate for the Democratic mayoral nomination Helen Gym, who was supported by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, campaigning in front of the Edward T Steel Elementary School, telling us how she saved that school from ‘going charter,’ but Steel Elementary, was ranked 1,205th out of 1,607 Pennsylvania elementary schools. 8% of the students scored at or above grade-level proficient in reading, and a whopping 1% of students scored at or above in math.

There is simply no evidence that the education bureaucracy in this country has improved actually educating students.

The left love the federal Department of Education for two main reasons: it has enabled the policies from liberal districts to be imposed on schools in conservative areas, and has allowed the liberal advocates to have to lobby only one set of bureaucrats, at the federal level, rather than fifty state education boards and thousands of local school districts for the policies they prefer.

It seems the Department of Education has little to do with actual education and more with indoctrination. After all, it is easier to program and indoctrinate students if they remain deficient in reading, writing, arithmetic, and critical thinking skills.

==+++++==

You’ve probably heard that a US District judge has ordered the government to stop deporting illegal immigrants, particularly violent criminal members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

On Saturday, without giving the Trump administration any time to respond, Judge Boasberg issued an immediate temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking DHS, Customs and Border Patrol and ICE from deporting illegal aliens and narcotrafficking gang members belonging to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Boasberg ordered the flights of criminal gang members to turn around and immediately bring the criminals back to the USA to enjoy a life of criminal conduct and terrorism in the USA. National security is secondary to the rights of criminal aliens to sell drugs, continue child/sexploitation, murder American citizens and rape their targets.

The problem with Judge Boasberg? He is apparently as corrupt as the system he’s protecting.

This is the same Judge Boasberg who sat as presiding judge on the FISA court. The same Judge Boasberg who gave FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith a slap on the wrist for manufacturing evidence used in the Carter Page FISA application that defrauded the court. The same Judge Boasberg who appointed former DOJ-NSD head Mary McCord as amicus curiae advisor to the court, after she knowingly and fraudulently submitted the FISA application to the court.

This is the same Judge Boasberg gave J6 FBI agent provocateur Ray Epps a sentence of probation. This is the same judge who, on his vacation, went to sit in the DC courtroom to observe defendant President Trump who was forced to appear in DC court. This is the same Boasberg who established a horrible precedent in forcing Vice-President Mike Pence to testify before a DC grand jury about his conversations with President Trump (breaking executive privilege).

It appears Judge Boasberg twists the law into an unrecognizable shape in order to let the Deep State get away with actions and crimes that would get anyone else sent to prison. It seems that The Narrative must be preserved even if it means ignore the law, ignoring the Constitution.

==+++++==

I have to wonder if the following is a case of “Too little too late.”

Colleges are finding out they are in trouble and that they don’t have many allies.

What did they expect after years of supporting causes many Americans find abhorrent, protesting on behalf of regimes, organizations, and ideologies that are murderous, genocidal, and would have no problems killing the very people protesting on their behalves?

Columbia University is just the start of a long-brewing backlash. On Monday of this week the Trump administration's Department of Education put 60 schools on notice that they will lose federal funding if they don't do more to crack down on antisemitism on campus.

--snip--

On Friday the DOE sent another letter to more than 50 schools warning them that discriminatory DEI programs would no longer be tolerated.

--snip--

Colleges are clearly getting the message which is why many of them put hiring freezes in place this week, in anticipation of being short on cash very soon.

--snip--

Unfortunately for many of these schools, they are only now realizing that they don't have a lot of friends to take up any slack if their budgets are cut.

When alumni with deep pockets start backing away from supporting their alma mater because it has become too radical, have lost their reason to exist, you know a college is in trouble. We saw that happening at Harvard as alumni stopped funding endowments because of its apparent support of blatant antisemitism. How many other colleges will see donors stop giving because those institutions of higher learning have instead become institutions of indoctrination for heinous ideologies and wholly against Western Civilization?

Are our colleges finally learning there is a price for taking and supporting such positions?

Let us hope so.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snow banks are rapidly melting, thoughts of the upcoming boating season are starting to intrude, and where we’ll see plenty of rain on Monday.

Tariffs - Carrot and Stick Diplomacy?

Listening to a number of people debate as well as letters to the editor of our local paper and plenty of opinions on the Web, I have come to the conclusion that far too many people haven’t a clue about tariffs, what they are, how they work, and that the US isn’t the only one that uses them. In fact, you will see that a lot of our present trading partners have them on US goods coming into their countries with some of them being outright draconian. Yet somehow tariffs are only bad if it’s the US imposing them, at least according to the Left and the clueless...who are often the same people.

Yes, tariffs can be punitive. Some can be responses – tit fo tat – to tariffs imposed by other countries. And others can be used as tools of diplomacy, in many cases so-called “Carrot and Stick” diplomacy. What we’ve been seeing from President Trump has been more of the third type followed by the second type.

According to Victor Davis Hanson the “Carrot and Stick” application appears to working.

President Donald Trump is not using tariffs for their historical purpose, which is to protect and promote domestic industry. Instead, Trump, as Victor Davis Hanson argues, is using tariffs to hold countries, like Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and China, accountable. And it’s working.

On this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson dispels the Left’s hysteria over President Trump’s tariff policies:

“So, if you take Venezuela and Colombia, he's saying that ‘you people deliberately emptied your jails and you sent them to the United States—sent them being felons—violent felons. And you're not going to do that anymore’.

And they said, ‘we're not taking them back’. He said, ‘you're going to take them back, or I'm going to put a tariff’. So, it was a lever of diplomacy, and it worked. They backed down completely.”

That’s just one instance of it which took place back in February. The EU is trying to punish the US so it imposed tariffs on US whiskey and other spirits and the US has responded with tariffs on EU wines, champagne, and distilled spirits. Will tariffs on Canada and Mexico work? Only time will tell if Trump will get his way. The same goes for China which has heavy tariffs on US goods and has had them for a long time.

This is going to be interesting.

Friday Funny - Live Free Or Die

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a bit of a schizophrenic week at the lake, at least weather-wise. Below zero windchills to sunny, warm, and in the 50’s and back again over the period of a few days. That’s New Hampshire in March. Not that we don’t have to worry about snowstorms. To the contrary, we’ve had some of our biggest snowstorms in March. Last year we had a heck of a Nor’easter in April that dumped a lot of heavy snow and knocked out power across the state. We were without power here at The Gulch for almost 2 days after that storm. Thank goodness we had the Official Weekend Pundit Generator which did a great job of keeping the lights on and the heat operating.

Ice fisherman have been reminded they need to remove their bob houses from the ice by April 1st. They also closed the ice runway in Alton Bay this past week, the only official ice runway in the Lower 48 recognized by the FAA. The ski areas are still quite busy though our local ski resort will close for the season on the first weekend of April regardless of the ski conditions as they start transitioning from winter operations to summer operations. (Yes, they are a two-and-a-half season resort covering summer, foliage - in fall, but it only lasts a few weeks - and winter.)

I have already received an e-mail from the boatyard that takes care of the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka The Boat – about scheduling de-winterization and pre-launch prep, something I have already scheduled. (I’m hoping to put the boat back into the water during the second week of May, lake conditions permitting.)

However, all of that is still some weeks away as I still have huge snowbanks surrounding The Gulch to deal with. That, and getting used to Daylight Savings Time again.

==+++++==

Speaking of Daylight Savings Time, I know more and more people are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. I know I am.

I live at the eastern extreme of the Eastern Time Zone, butting up against the Atlantic Time Zone, and during mid fall through mid winter the sun is generally gone by ~4pm. Here at The Gulch the sun disappears behind the hills to our southwest by 2pm. It’s even worse in eastern Maine.

It would work better for us if we could either remain in Daylight Savings Time year round or change from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round.

Some people here have said that it would put children in danger if that was done because during the late fall and early winter months the kids would be going to school in the dark. That’s a specious argument because some of our school kids do that even if we’re in Standard Time. Previous experiments with year round DST – during the Nixon Administration during the Arab Oil Embargo back in the 70’s – showed that didn’t happen.

Reading the comments to the linked post saw a wide spread of opinions. One commenter questioned the polls and their conclusions:

"What we have is a bunch of polls with inconsistent results, meaning that the issue is likely divided three ways, with equal shares of the population wanting permanent DST, wanting permanent Standard Time, and wanting to keep things as they are."

This makes me wonder if when they selected those they would ask for their polls determined where within each time zone these folks lived. I'll bet depending upon where in their time zone they lived - eastern edge, mid-section, or western edge - the replies would be different. I live along the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone and while my polling was totally unscientific, most of the people who live here would prefer to stay in DST or jump over to the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round. Those living in the middle or western edge might have different answers.

This subject comes up again and again every fall and late winter when we change the clocks. Congress has been dragging its feet in resolving this issue. We have heard a number of suggestions and opinions about how to solve this issue. I know I’d like this issue to be steeled once and for all. The same commenter as above provided this possible solution:

The problem is that those along the edges of some time zones find that Standard Time is problematic in the winter. Maybe it's time to shift some of the 'borders' of the time zones to eliminate that problem. That's why Maine and New Hampshire would rather be in the Atlantic Time Zone and remain in Standard Time year round rather than the Eastern Time Zone.

Indeed.

==+++++==

Maybe they should have remembered the adage about being careful what they wish for because they just might get it.

In this case it’s the price and availability of natural gas here in New England, and specifically in Massachusetts. It seems Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey says there is an energy crisis because “it’s impossible to get natural gas.” However she chooses to ignore she’s one of the people who worked to make it difficult to get the needed natural gas by killing off the pipelines needed to get that natural gas into New England, specifically the Kinder Morgan pipeline. That pipeline would have brought in inexpensive domestic natural gas from Pennsylvania. Instead, a lot of the natural gas comes in by ship to the Everett Natural Gas Terminal near Boston, that natural gas coming from foreign sources – a lot of itcoming into the Everett Terminal from Trinidad and Tabago – natural gas that was bought at world market prices.

So Healey and her kindred made sure it was impossible to increase the natural gas supply and then complain that there isn’t enough natural gas to meet demand. They got what they wanted and then complain that they got what they wanted.

Talk about hypocrisy.

==+++++==

I have to wonder where the conspiracy theorists are on this?

First, we see the wildfires sweeping through sections of LA, taking out about 12,000 homes and businesses. It will take years to rebuild those areas. Now we see something similar happening out on Long Island in the Hamptons, the wildfires threatening the homes of the middle class and wealthy alike.

Seeing what’s been happening in the aftermath of the LA fires, with some stating the large real estate investment corporations salivating at the prospect of being able to pick up expensive real estate cheap and redeveloping it with multimillion dollar homes, one has to wonder if the same thing will happen in the Hamptons should the wildfires destroy homes there, too. I would have to wonder if the same corporations will do the same thing in the Hamptons if the fires spread to take out homes?

Or maybe it’s all just one big coincidence…

==+++++==

This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

CNN data reporter ‘shocked’ to see that American majority supports DOGE.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re getting some springlike weather over this coming week, the snowbanks will be melting away, and where Town Meeting season is starting.

Null And Void

It seems the hits from the now defunct Biden Administration keep on coming. The latest hit?

It appears that almost every document bearing Joe Biden’s signature was signed using an autopen. How many of those documents signed by autopen were done without the knowledge or consent of President Biden? If that was the case, then that could render all Presidential actions take during the Biden Administration “null and void”.

Remember when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) revealed his discussion with Biden when Biden couldn't recall signing the executive order halting LNG exports? Now we know why — he probably didn't. The real question is: Who did? Who was running the country while Biden was not all there?

The use of the presidential autopen dates back to the 1950s, and there's been much debate about its legality. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill into law using an autopen. He was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. His office relied on a 30-page memo from President George W. Bush's legal team asserting that the president's presence was not required as long as said president had authorized the signature.

What's not clear, in the case of Biden, is who was running the autopen and whether Biden was aware it was happening.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is demanding that the Department of Justice investigate whether Biden's obvious cognitive decline allowed unelected bureaucrats to essentially run the government without presidential oversight. If this is true — and let's be honest, all signs point to yes — every executive order, every pardon, and every official action taken under Biden's name could be constitutionally void.

--snip--

The evidence is overwhelming. We know that Biden's handlers desperately tried to prevent anyone from meeting with him one-on-one. Even Democratic insiders admit the truth. DNC fundraiser Lindy Li recently spilled the beans and acknowledged that Biden wasn't running the show; his staff, his wife, and Hunter were.

Thanks to the Heritage Foundation's investigation, we now have proof that Biden's signature was automated throughout his presidency — which raises serious questions about whether he was aware of what was being signed in his name at all. The Oversight Project rightfully points out that since Biden revoked Trump's executive privilege, we can easily determine who controlled the autopen and what safeguards, if any, were in place.

Talk about a constitutional crisis. If the autopen signed documents were indeed done without the knowledge or consent of the President, then every single one of those documents would be fraudulent and therefore, illegal and unenforceable. They would be null and void.

What would the fallout be if it is found that this is indeed the case? For one thing, the pardons ‘granted’ by Biden that covered his family and various friends would disappear. Everyone covered by those pardons would no longer be immune and could face criminal charges and prosecution.

Every single instance would need to be investigated and if found to be fraudulent, nullified. Those guilty must be identified and prosecuted.

As one commenter asks:

“Other than being criminal actions, could some of them also be considered treasonous?”

Indeed.

Friday Funny - Potholes And Robbing Banks In Maine

The follwing also applies to New Hampshire and Vermont.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a busy few days here at The Gulch. One of the things that have kept me busy is an addition to the WP Feline Contingent.

As regular readers know we lost one of our cats – Bailey – a little over a month ago. Our remaining cat, one of the original members if the WP Feline Contingent, is Pip and she’s 17 years old. She was never a ‘lone’ cat, always having other cats around, so she wasn’t doing well by herself. This past Friday I made a trip to one of the Humane Society homes here in the Lakes Region. After spending a couple of hours one of the cats sheltered there chose me to take her to her new home.

She’s a sweet cat, about 7 years old, and she seems to get along with Pip now that she’s been here for a couple of days. I wish I could post a picture of her – Zoey – but Blogger is still broken and I can’t post any new photos. It won’t even let me upload them. (Blogger has been particularly unhelpful.)

All I can say for sure is that Pip has not been wandering around the house calling out for Bailey since Zoey arrived.

==+++++==

Only $1 billion?

DOGE says it has generated almost $1 billion in savings from Department of Education cuts.

Earlier this week, DOGE launched an “Agency Efficiency Leaderboard” that ranks government agencies based on how much wasteful funding has been cut.

The Department of Education is currently ranked in first place.

Campus Reform reported that DOGE has canceled nearly $900 million in contracts and training grants at the Department of Education.

This includes “over $600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies” such as critical race theory (CRT) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), according to a press release from the department.

I keep hearing arguments that Congress should be the ones making the cuts, but anyone who has been around a while knows Congress would make token cuts at best and take years to do so. That would still leave us with multi-trillion dollar deficits and the graft, corruption, and expansion of bureaucracy jobs would continue apace. We’re at a point where the drastic measures being undertaken by DOGE are necessary because the government cannot continue to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need.

Is it going to hurt people, particularly government employees? Yes, without a doubt. But there’s no such thing as guaranteed jobs, whether you are talking about government or private business. It will be worse if we don’t take these measures because when it collapses, everyone will lose their jobs.

==+++++==

When my son BeezleBub was still in high school over a decade ago, our school system did away with Home Economics and greatly cut back on Shop (now called ‘Tech Ed’). That was a mistake.

I know when I was in Junior High School - it wasn’t ‘Middle School’ back then – Shop was mandatory for boys and Home Ec for girls. My school suggested that boys and girls take both classes, they being far ahead of other school systems around the country.

Now it seems that some schools have realized that doing away with them was a bad idea and they’re bringing them back. This WSJ article talks about schools now reviving Shop Class as “a hedge against AI future.”

In America’s most surprising cutting-edge classes, students pursue hands-on work with wood, metals and machinery, getting a jump on lucrative old-school careers.

School districts around the U.S. are spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college.

With higher-education costs soaring and white-collar workers under threat by generative AI, the timing couldn’t be better.

In a suburb of Madison, Wis., Middleton High School completed a $90 million campus overhaul in 2022 that included new technical-education facilities. The school’s shop classes, for years tucked away in a back corridor, are now on display. Fishbowl-style glass walls show off the new manufacturing lab, equipped with computer-controlled machine tools and robotic arms.

It makes perfect sense. For the past few generations kids have been told the only way to get ahead was to get a college education. They were lied to. That didn’t stop students from going deep into debt going to college chasing degrees that, in the end, didn’t help them get ahead. It did leave them owing a lot of money and helped enrich our institutions of higher learning. It also left the trades hurting as fewer and fewer young adults were entering the trades. Today that appears to be changing. I am certainly seeing that here in my part of New Hampshire.

Something else that also seems to be reappearing here is Home Economics class, renamed Family and Consumer Science Class.

There’s mathematics, nutrition, applied science, teamwork, budgeting, problem solving and hygiene — and if they’re lucky, the students in Tiffany Dube’s class will also get a tasty batch of cookies. All of the above are on offer in her Family and Consumer Science class, taught at Laconia Middle School for the first time since the building opened in 2008.

Budgetary pressures kept the class from appearing on student schedules until this year, when a convergence of factors created an opening. The middle school was unable to fill a couple of exploratory teaching positions, which left some extra money on the table for salaries. Dube, an experienced teacher who has a passion for family and consumer science, reached out to Principal Aaron Hayward, who was receptive to the idea. He found an equally enthusiastic response from Superintendent Bob Champlin and the school board.

“When I applied, I really just threw it out there. I wasn’t thinking it was going to work,” Dube said. Instead, she was hired mid-year, developed a curriculum that blends personal finance with cooking and kitchen safety, and career exploration. She’s hoping to add sewing and other practical skills in the future.

While family and consumer science might have been seen in a previous generation as appropriate for future homemakers, Dube said the skills learned in the class would be useful to any future adult.

It used to be that when most students graduated from high school they knew most of what they needed to be an adult. Once Home Economics and Shop went away, that was no longer true. Hopefully the return of such classes will help make young adults better prepared for the adult world.

==+++++==

From Gateway Pundit comes this discussion by Elon Musk about the “Non-profit grift that George Soros has been running on the U.S. Government and taxpayers.”

Considering George Soros was allegedly one of the members of WRBA (Whoever is Running the Biden Administration) who saddled us with Biden and the awful policies that burdened us all, crippled our domestic energy production and hurt the economy certainly explains a lot.

==+++++==

Stacy McCain is asking the needed question, that question being “Why are the media blaming Trump?”

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it’s been really cold but is going to be in the 50’s by Friday, we’ve been working on cutting back the snow banks because we know winter is nowhere near over, and Monday is raising its ugly head...again.

Not What It Appears To Be?

I think we’ve all seen the meltdown in the White House between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. I have seen portions of the video, read the opinions of people across the political spectrum, and I haven’t an effin’ clue as to what really triggered this debacle.

First, I am going to say that I fully support Ukraine in its efforts to defend itself against Russia. The Russians are not the ‘injured’ party in this war of aggression. I believe Russia is the aggressor and that Putin is trying to “get the Old Gang back together”...whether they want to or not.

With that out of the way, I have to wonder if this whole kerfuffle was for real, is a disinformation operation, a miscalculation by either Trump or Zelenskyy, both, or something instigated by the Russians. The timing of this seems awfully convenient.

Goodness knows the comments and opinions are all over the place, with some laying the blame entirely on Trump, on Zelenskyy, or the fact that Mercury is in retrograde. (Is that really a thing?)

Is Trump right that the only way this war is going to end is through diplomacy? Is Zelenskyy right that there must be security guarantees regarding any possible diplomatic solution because Russia can’t be trusted? Is allowing Ukraine to join NATO a plus or a minus? Can Ukraine make Russia continuing its war against Ukraine untenable, at least for Putin?

I don’t think Putin saw one possible outcome of his Special Military Operation being both Finland and Sweden deciding they would be better off joining NATO, just the opposite of what he wanted. Europe is becoming more united in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian economy is in rought shape, statements from the Kremlin notwithstanding. And on top of that Kaliningrad may be getting some ideas about separating itself from Russia.

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Friday Funny - I'll Tell You The Story

A fellow I've known for almost 40 years has been telling us stories on TV on two different TV stations up here in New Hampshire. For the past 25 years he's been plying his trade on the local ABC station - WMUR. Before that he was on New Hampshire's PBS station - WENH. The fellow, one Fritz Weatherbee, is a raconteur with a lengthy list of stories, true and mostly true. His humor is dry, typical of Yankee humor, and his stories are always entertaining.

This past Monday Fritz pulled the plug, retiring at the age of 88. I figured that at least this once I would put one of his stories up for the Friday Funny, in this case the one dealing with town names in New Hampshire that sometimes confuse people. I'll let him "tell the story." While not nearly humorous as many of his stories, it does give you a feeling for the man's style.

Thoughts On A Sunday

With the somewhat (relatively) warmer and sunnier weather I am having to deal with something that I haven’t seen in a number of years, that being ice dams. It’s been a problem over the past few days here at The Gulch and I’m seeing some water from the melting snow on the roof infiltrating under the shingles and into the interior of the house. That’s not good. I know this has been a problem here in the past but well before I moved here in 2018. So I have been taking some action to reduce the probability of further ice damming and trying to reduce or remove the existing ice dam. I only have one place on the roof where it’s taking place, that being along the junction where the house roof and garage roof meet. It’s the same place the WP Parents had problems with ice dams in the past. Hopefully between making sure the gutter along the roof doesn’t freeze up and being able to get some ice melt roof tablets up where they’re needed I should be able to deal with this issue. I do have to pick up another bucket of roof tablets at the local Lowes. (They have 49 in stock as of noon, when I am writing this.) I’ll be heading out shortly to pick some up after I toss a couple of more up into the problem area.

Hopefully this will take care of the problem.

==+++++==

From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this bit of foolishness, this time from the UK. It looks like the UK is going to make the same mistake as the LA Fire Department and focus their firefighter recruitment efforts to DEI rather than capability.

Britain’s fire service is too male and too white, a report has claimed.

The report, which was commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), found that the fire service was “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic”.

--snip--

The review said: “The common ‘image’ of a firefighter is, for the most part, of a white heterosexual male turning out in a fire engine to fight fires… The diversity of the service needs to be much more reflective of the communities it serves and the wide range of services it delivers.

“Whilst progress has been made, the pace has been slow and progressive action has been applied inconsistently. Too many people are still being let down,” it added.

Paul Embery, a former executive council member of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), told The Telegraph that fire chiefs should focus on putting out fires rather than “manipulating the workforce demographic”.

He said: “Public services should of course ensure that individuals from all backgrounds are able to join their ranks and prejudice must be tackled where it exists.”

“But when they set arbitrary targets for recruitment, it crosses over into social engineering.”

“There are all sorts of reasons why particular groups might not enter certain trades – there are, for example, few male midwives and hardly any female refuse collectors.”

Mr Embery added: “Most of the time it has little to do with prejudice. Some individuals and groups are attracted to jobs that hold little appeal for others – that’s just a fact of life.”

“We should stop fixating on manipulating the workforce demographic in certain public services and concentrate more on ensuring that these services perform better for the public.”

I’m sorry, but there are some professions where equity has no place. Firefighting is one of them. Ability counts, not race or gender. Equality of opportunity makes perfect sense. Equality of outcome – equity - can kill people. That’s where this is headed, as much as I hate to say it. Let’s just hope that not to many will need to die or sections of a city will need to burn to the ground before DEI is ejected from professions like firefighting.

==+++++==

Seeing this on Instapundit was serendipitous as the WP Niece and I had actually been discussing this topic during our day yesterday, ‘this’ being the increasing overregulation within Europe.

My employer does a lot of business in the EU and the UK and the level of regulations has been increasing at an accelerating pace, particularly environmental regulations. I deal with those, at least when it comes to the electronic and optical components, and have done so since 2006 when it was only something called RoHS – Restrictions on Hazardous Substances – that was aimed primarily electrical and electronic equipment and the substances they contained. The original regulations were aimed at six substances - lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chrome, PBB’s (Polybrominated Biphenyls) and PBDE’s (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers) which are both fire retardants used in plastics. Since then four others have been added which doesn’t really add all that much in the way of a burden.

If it had stopped there it wouldn’t be an issue, but since then environmental regulations have spread to cover darned near everything and it is becoming more difficult and more expensive to keep up. I have to wonder if it will reach the point where it is no longer possible to do business in the EU or the UK because of the cost and shrinking profit margins.

I know I am being overwhelmed because while I do deal with environmental regulations across the world as part of my job, it is limited to what I covered above. If I have to cover every one, particularly for items which are out of my usual range of responsibility, that’s all I will be doing. I won’t have time for anything else. I know I won’t be the only one in that position. It doesn’t bode well for Europe if this increasing overregulation ends up killing their economy.

==+++++==

I was wrong.

I stated the story about DEI being instituted in the UK fire departments was from the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department which usually means it’s the stupidest thing I’ve come across this past week. But it turns out the governor of the state of Wisconsin has done something just as stupid, if not stupider.

Wisconsin Gov. Evers Wants to Change ‘Mother’ to ‘Inseminated Person’

I know the Left wants to change language to make it impossible to offend anyone...or impossible to dissent against all the ‘wonderful’ ideas they want to impose upon everyone. (‘1984’ anyone?) There is nothing wrong with the present terms but this Leftist drone wants to do away with them ‘because’.

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants the state law to drop “mother” and use “inseminated person” instead.

I. Am. Fuming.

The bill also changes “paternity” to “parentage” and “father” to “parent.”

In cases of surrogacy, “mother” is now “parent” or “person” “who gave birth to the child.”

It’s not “biological” mother or father…it’s “natural parent.”

STOP. ERASING. FEMALES.

It is not just on those pages that cases of artificial insemination are discussed.

The changes are throughout the bill. I understand the changes regarding marriage since same-sex couples can have a legal union.

This bill also erases males.

Only females can carry and birth a human being. Only a male can impregnate the female.

The only thing I am going to add to this is Read The Whole Thing.

==+++++==

This one is fun and may be a way to decide which federal government employees will be retained and which will be RIF’d.

“I mean, if you can’t name five things you accomplished in a 40 hour work week, then you aren’t providing any value.”

I file a status report of the things I’ve accomplished during the work week at the end of every week. Lots of times I have 5 things I’ve done before Monday has come to a close.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee where the temps are actually above freezing, will be again on Monday, and the ice dams will continue to grow.

A Visit, A Discussion, and A Definition

I had a visit from the younger WP Niece today, something I’d been looking forward to for some time. She’s been a reader of this blog and has, on more than one occasion, texted me about one post or another. While we don’t always agree on one political viewpoint or another, we do agree on many others. Part of the problem has been that we’ve tried having discussions electronically and we have found that really doesn’t work all that well, at least not for us. Face-to-face discussions always work better for us and lead to far fewer misunderstandings and the ability to debate things both profound and trivial without the inherent lag of electronic communications and inability to hear or see nuances that escape us when all we have to go by are words on a screen.

One thing that was mentioned was how many people will use labels for people they disagree with without actually understanding the meaning of those labels. One of those that are thrown about when describing Trump is ‘fascist’. Most of those using that term haven’t a friggin’ clue what that word means or what it entails. But they’ve heard others use it and so they do too.

What triggered me to write about this topic rather than some other topic? This picture. (Sorry, I still can’t embed pictures as Blogger is still ‘broken’ and I can’t seem to get any help fixing the problem.)

Do those calling Trump a fascist even know what the definition of fascism is? I’m making a SWAG here, but I’m guessing a large majority of them don’t. So here’s one definition from the American Heritage Dictionary:

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

Does that really sound like the Trump Administration? It sounds more like the Biden Administration to me. If it’s Trump, then he’s doing it all wrong.

Friday Funny - Anatoly The Gym Cleaner

Thoughts On A Sunday

I will admit some disappointment that there wasn’t more new snow on the ground when I got up this morning. I expected to see somewhere between 4 and 6 inches. However, it was closer to 3 inches, hence my disappointment. But Mother Nature follows her own rules and by the time I was imbibing in my second cup of coffee a couple of hours later there was another 2 inches on the ground. It appears that when I got up there was a lull in the snowfall so I thought it was pretty much over and the only thing we had to look forward to was some sleet that was forecast to follow later in the morning and through the afternoon.

Like many others up here in New Hampshire, we had thought the below normal snowfall and warmer than normal temperatures in late December and into mid-January were what we would be seeing throughout the rest of the winter. We were wrong. Not that we’re upset now that we’re experiencing a more ‘normal’ winter with cold temps and regular snow. Quite the contrary.

While we haven’t experienced any big storms to this point, we have seen snow about every 3 or 4 days in amounts running between 2 and 5 inches. We did have one storm that dropped about 8 inches about a week ago, but that’s been the exception. Not that I’m looking for a big storm. They can be ‘exciting’ but they are also more difficult to dig out from afterwards. The smaller storms every few days make it easy to get everything shoveled out, usually taking time but a lot less effort to take care of the snow.

There’s still a month to go before the Spring Equinox and we can see big storms well into April up here. In fact, we had one of out biggest storms of last winter in April, a big Nor’easter that dropped a lot of heavy snow and caused widespread power outages. The Gulch was without power for almost 2 days, but at least we had the Official Weekend Pundit Generator to rely on to keep the lights on and the heat running. I’m hoping we won’t need to do so this winter, but it is ready just in case.

==+++++==

I covered the electric school bus debacle in Maine two weeks ago, but it seems there are more repercussions to this major fail.

As one commenter so aptly put it:

A lot of comments on electric vehicles and winter performance, but that's really not the point. If the $365k buses worked just as well as a conventional $150k school bus it's still not the point. The point is they made the buying decision based on the fact that they were electric instead of on performance requirements (with safety margins), reliability, and lifecycle costs.

If the bus couldn't handle the worst route on the worst day at the end of its 10 or 15 year service life, with plenty to spare, and at a lower cost than other options, it should have never been considered.

A bus failure in the middle of winter is something that does happen now and then. But if your entire bus fleet - electric bus fleet – can leave students stranded in sub-zero weather or during a snowfall, you are endangering those kids due to a decision made based on ‘feelz’ and not facts. I have to echo the sentiment of other commenters that the folks who made the decision to buy these buses should be fired or removed from office.

==+++++==

I have a feeling this topic is going to have long legs, the topic being DOGE and what it has been exposing. I have a feeling we’ve seen only the tip of the proverbial financial iceberg and that, in the end, a lot of people are going to be investigated and in some cases imprisoned for their misappropriation of funds.

When Americans learn that their tax dollars are going to fund egregious projects around the world, it lays a foundation for the public relations framework needed by the Trump administration to bring American public opinion along on the necessary journey of restructuring the government. It makes people’s blood boil. And it sets the tone for the effectiveness, and need for, the entire Trump efficiency program, even though the spending in absolute monetary terms on these insane USAID projects is fairly minor compared to the overall $6.9 trillion federal budget.

--snip--

Trump recognizes, as Ronald Reagan did, the importance of galvanizing American public opinion as an integral part of carrying out his agenda. By inflaming the public, he puts pressure on the craven Congress to go along with his efforts to enact sweeping changes that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve.

No doubt when Musk sets his genius young elves to work applying their AI algorithms on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department’s budget data, they will find waste so massive that it dwarfs that of USAID’s $40 billion annual outlay. But it’s a bit harder for the public to grasp the wastefulness of the government paying many times the price that it should be paying for anti-aircraft missiles, say, or ineffective vaccines. From a public relations standpoint, it’s much easier to see the lunacy of the US taxpayer shelling out $2.5 million for an electric vehicle project in Vietnam or $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbian workplaces.

Cleaning the Augean Stables of government spending is truly a Herculean task, but I think DOGE as it is constituted now is up to the task. It is something that is long overdue as we can’t keep running multi-trillion dollar budget deficits every year. (Thanks Joe/WRBA!)

That some of the first federal employees being let go are those who are newer employees, with many of them still within their probationary periods, is something that makes sense. They can be laid off for any reason with little or no recourse. Will there be some disruptions because of these layoffs? Sure there will, but that’s no reason to not shed employees from bloated agencies, bureaus, and departments. If we hand it over to Congress as many Democrats had suggested, any workforce reductions will be token amounts so the Democrats can claim they’ve gotten something done. But we don’t need a 5% or 10% reduction in the federal workforce. We need to see 30%, 40%, or even 50%, even if it means shuttering some of those federal agencies, bureaus, and departments which serve no purpose other than spending money the government doesn’t have on things that aren’t needed.

Some people think it it can’t possibly be done, but Javier Milei, President of Argentina, has done just that, cutting the size or Argentina’s government by 50% and seeing a revitalization of his country’s economy as the government deficit spending has been cut to zero. Even if we can’t reach that level of cuts, every dollar saved counts.

==+++++==

Hmm, I have to wonder if this has anything to do with Trump and his “DOGEs of War” going over the books in every government office?

It seems the housing market in the DC area is seeing a “massive sell-off”.

The most expensive housing markets in the US, the burbs of DC, is suddenly taking a beating. The moochers, the looters, the criminals are fleeing in a major housing sell off.

“Of the top seven wealthiest counties in America, 4 of them are suburbs of Washington DC. These counties have no major industries of note other than the federal government, lobbying the federal government and selling things to the federal government.”

--snip--

“This is a major reason why the vast majority of Americans have zero sympathy for defunded NGOs, terminated federal employees, cut-off journalists and suddenly irrelevant lobbyists.”

They are running scared...

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

Take a look at the postings and listings for properties in the Washington DC area. It’s the rats deserting a sinking ship.

Good riddance.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the sleet is slowing increasing, there’s still plenty of snow to move, and where folks from Massachusetts will be spending this coming week since it’s the February vacation down in the Pay State.

DOGE Isn't New

We have been hearing the laments and cries of outrage from the Democrats and the embedded Left in government, with some claiming what Trump is doing via the Department Of Government Efficiency is illegal and doesn’t have the power to do what it’s been doing. Nor are Trump’s actions based upon DOGE’s findings. But they are wrong...and they have Barack Obama to thank for that.

Obama created the United States Digital Service (USDS) in 2014. It was meant as a bureaucratic patch job to fix the Obamacare website meltdown.

Fast forward to 2025. Trump rebrands it to DOGE (Unites States DOGE Service). Keeps the acronym, keeps the funding, but gives it a whole new mission: Find the Receipts.

Legally untouchable because it was already fully funded and operational. Trump evokes 5 USC 3161, which allows him to create temporary hiring authorities. DOGE teams get embedded inside every single federal agency. Each team consists of a lawyer, HR rep, a zoomer nerd, and an investigator. They report to DOGE, not the agency they’re embedded in.

But wait, there’s more! Trump invokes 44 USC Chapter 35, which governs federal IT and cybersecurity oversight. Since USDS was originally an IT oversight body, DOGE now has full access to all federal data systems. Yes, that’s right. All of them.

The Democrats keep thinking Trump is an idiot, but that persona they see is more like a costume an actor dons to play a role, and he shows them what they expect to see. But Trump was smart. He understands the mistakes he made during his first term and didn’t want to repeat them. This time he made plans well in advance, put together teams to bring those plans to fruition and to so constitutionally. That USDS was repurposed, it was still well within its original charter. Trump used The Won’s own creation against the Democrats.

One commenter wrapped it up perfectly:

The same people who scream fascism if the government tries to check the trash of a house of a suspected child molester will cheerfully give that same government the right to inspect the trash if they think the house is using plastic straws rather than paper ones in the name of fighting global warming.

Their only argument is "but it's different when we do it, because we're the good people."

I have to agree. If it were Kamala Harris doing this they’d be all for it and would do their best to shield their friends, family, and campaign donors from such investigations.

Friday Funny (Yet Another Saturday Edition) - Can I Clean Here?

If you're familiar with Anatoly the Gym Janitor you'll get this one.

Thoughts On A Sunday

We received a little over 8 inches of snow overnight here at The Gulch. The folks on the other side of the lake got around 10 inches. As I write this (a little past 8am), our road has not yet been plowed. I can’t say about the main road as I haven’t been down that way yet. None of this means that I won’t be heading out shortly to start shoveling the driveway, digging out the trusty RAM 1500, and breaking out the roof rake to pull snow off the edge of the roof. In other words, taking care of the usual post-snow chores.

At least I don’t have to worry about having to go anywhere today so there’s no rush to get things done. Church services were canceled (though our church is still holding online services) as the town and state highway crews are still out plowing.

==+++++==

If you want to see a perfect example of “Get woke. Go broke,” all one has to do is look at the debacle of how Anheuser-Busch took one of their most popular brands – Bud Light – and destroyed it by going woke and in-your-face by using the most inappropriate spokesperson they could find - Dylan Mulvaney – a transgender woman who helped turn off a lot of Bud Light drinkers.

Bud Light is still trying to make up with the customer base it alienated on April 1, 2023. On that day, a brand that had been the top-selling beer in America for over two decades launched a social media campaign that would rock its customers, and not in a good way. Starring a transgender activist, Dylan Mulvaney, it celebrated Mulvaney’s first year of “girlhood.” Bud Light even sent Mulvaney a personalized can to mark this milestone date in Mulvaney’s transition from biological male to transgender woman, which millions had already followed on Instagram and TikTok.

This was not an April Fools’ Day prank as some believed, but a serious effort by the world’s largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, to “rebrand” its product.

For Bud Light, the consequences were no laughing matter. Consumers immediately recoiled and targeted the beer with one of the largest boycotts in recent history. Bud Light sales declined 11 percent that week compared to the previous year. By April 15, 2023, sales were down 21 percent. In the ensuing months, the company shed billions of dollars of shareholder value, laid off hundreds of employees across the Anheuser-Busch ecosystem, damaged its reputation, and plunked itself in the middle of a highly contentious political issue. Almost every Anheuser-Busch stakeholder—wholesalers, employees, customers, and shareholders—lost trust in the company.

Why anyone at A-B or InBev thought this was a good idea baffles me. It’s as if they ignored the demographics of their customers and were aiming to gain customers in another demographic that was a fraction of the size of their existing one. Anyone with even a inkling of marketing knowledge would know that is a suicidal move. Did they think the move would merely add that ‘woke’ demographic to their customer base without offending their existing customer base?

I guess so...and they learned the “Get woke. Go Broke,” lesson the hard way.

==+++++==

I have to admit I like this take on DOGE.

DOGE has forced democrats into the position of defending waste, fraud and abuse.

Looking at just where taxpayers dollars are going via USAID has been eye-opening. Yes, much of the funds for USAID are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But way too much is going to people and organizations and businesses that have absolutely nothing to do with USAID’s purpose, including some that feed funds to terrorist organizations. How can Democrats justify this?

It’s even worse with with the entrenched departments, bureaus, and agencies where the graft, payoffs, and “no show” jobs eat up hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, if not a trillion or more. Maybe if DOGE had been grafted onto the Inspector General’s office which would have possibly given it subpoena power.

Our federal government is fat, is wasting tax money on things no one but the bureaucrats, lobbyists, and grifters want or need. It’s time to clean house. And if you think we should leave it to Congress all that means is that nothing will get done, it will cost a couple of hundred billion dollars to get nothing done, and nothing will change...other than to get worse.

==+++++==

To anyone that has been paying attention this is no surprise. To those with a green scam...er...agenda to ram down people’s throats it is anathema.

New study Points To Hunga Tonga Eruption As Cause Of Global Temperature Spike.

In January 2022, a massive underwater volcano called Hunga Tonga suddenly erupted and shot so much water into the upper atmosphere that levels in the stratosphere rose suddenly by at least 10%. It was a genuine one in 100, even 200 year event and was reasonably expected to produce temporary weather changes around the globe. Sure enough, subsequent temperatures showed a 0.3-0.4°C upward spike. Needless to say, the Net Zero fanatics claimed the rise as their own and blamed it on humans controlling the climate by increasing the trace gas carbon dioxide. Today the Daily Sceptic can give wider publicity to sensational recent findings that suggest Hunga Tonga was the main culprit in producing the recent spike. The scientists directly link a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere of between 0.5-2°C to Hunga Tonga. It is generally held that there is an anti-correlation between the lower and upper atmosphere and cooling at the top produces warming at the bottom due to a number of complex atmospheric processes.

--snip--

This is dramatic stuff. It appears to promote Hunga Tonga as the prime cause in explaining the recent spike in temperatures. Indeed it could be concluded that the temperature rise should have been a little higher – and higher even still if the effects of a recent strong El Niño natural oscillation are included. Satellite observations, confirmed by computer analysis, shows stratospheric cooling of 0.5°C to 1°C in the middle and upper stratosphere during 2022 through middle 2023, followed by stronger reductions of 1°C to 2°C in the mesosphere after the middle of 2023, note the scientists. Last year, two distinguished atmospheric scientists observed the anti-correlation between the higher and lower atmosphere and suggested the lower stratosphere cooled by approximately two degrees per degree of warming nearer the surface. Where the troposphere has been anomalously warming, the lower stratosphere has been anomalously cooling “and vice versa”, note the scientists.

I found it interesting that a volcanic eruption that put 160 million tons of water into the atmosphere, thereby increasing the water vapor content of the atmosphere by up to 13% (depending upon which figures with which you agree), was minimized by the climate change cultists as “insignificant” and having little if any effect on global temperatures and precipitation.

It has also been devoutly ignored by the media since it doesn’t fit The Narrative and therefore must be wrong.

And so it goes.

==+++++==

As an aside I have been looking into the failure of my laptop to boot, wondering if it had been seen by others after the latest software update. I have found a couple that reported a similar problem and it turns out they were using similar hardware to mine, so I have to wonder if it is some kind of hardware incompatibility. I wouldn’t think that would be the case considering I have been using the laptop for years and I have seen no such incompatibilities before.

So it looks like I will need to reload the OS to see if I can regain function, something I will deal with next weekend.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re still cleaning up the snow, the skiers and snowmobilers are making the best of the new snow, and where Monday is returning yet again.

Bailey

I delayed posting this for a while but I wanted to share this news.

Two weeks ago we lost a member of the WP Feline Contingent, Bailey, a sweet and gentle giant. While we only had the privilege of knowing and loving him for not quite a year and a half, he affected us greatly and was a great companion for Pip, the last member of the original WP Feline Contingent. He took ill suddenly and the veterinarians down at the Capital Area Veterinary Emergency Service in Concord, NH diagnosed him with a pleural effusion which made it increasingly difficult for him to breathe. His prognosis was terminal and he wasn’t going to last out the morning.

I did what I had to do for him even though it was a heartrending decision.

He died as I held him in my arms, telling him that I loved him and what a good boy he’d been. I told him that I would miss him but that someday we would be together again and that it was time for him to cross the Rainbow Bridge.

It was this short video about the loss of a beloved cat that I saw on Facebook a little while ago that prompted me to finally post about Bailey’s loss. While the cat in the video does not resemble our beloved Bailey, the sentiment is the same.

Uh-Oh

My usual Saturday post died aborning as the Official Weekend Pundit Laptop is having problems. It seems that after a software update it will not boot to the login screen. Not that it stops me from posting, but I hadn't tried booting the laptop since I installed the update late last Sunday. (It did require a restart to take effect, but it has never been an issue in the past if I shut down the laptop and used the next start-up as the 'reboot'.)

Fortunately I do have other computers I can use but I didn't realize the laptop wasn't going to boot until about 30 minutes ago. I can fix it but it will take reloading the OS and that won't take place until tomorrow when I have the time. Downloading the OS, burning an image onto a USB key, and then booting to the USB key to load the OS doesn't seem to be something I should undertake at 10PM on a Saturday evening.

My usual Thoughts On A Sunday will be posted as I will use the Official Weekend Pundit Desktop Computer to craft it.

Oh, and it's snowing to beat the band, just as the Weather Guys^TM promised.

Friday Funny (Saturday Edition) - Rodney Dangerfield

Yup. I screwed up. I forgot that yesterday was Friday, particulrly in light of a meeeting that was scheduled for Thursday took place on Friday because of the snow we had Thursday, leaving me to think that it was Thursday. Mea culpa

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was yet another chilly night here at the lake, with the low hitting -10ºF and sitting at -2ºF as I write this (8am). At least there isn’t much wind so we don’t have wind chill to deal with.

We had snow into yesterday morning and we saw about 5 inches here at The Gulch. It wasn’t heavy so it was easy to shovel and to rake off of the roof, but it took almost 2 hours to get everything cleaned off including the trusty RAM 1500. We have more snow coming tonight, but only 1 to 3 inches are expected and it will end well before sunrise. I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning before breakfast…

Two things the chilly weather has helped bring about are two annual events we look forward to, the first being the New England Pond Hockey Classic on the ice at Meredith Bay which finishes later today and the Great Meredith Rotary Ice Fishing Derby which takes place next weekend.

Another thing with the snowfall we’ve had is that snowmobile trails are open!

==+++++==

Note: Looking at what I wrote below I realized that this is really a “Why Doesn’t This Surprise Me” edition of TOAS. So be it.

==+++++==

This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

79% of Americans say that biological men should not compete in women’s sports, according to an NYT/Ipsos survey.

As Glenn Reynolds comments:

Wokeness was always an elite preference only, rejected by the masses and maintained only through bullying and shaming tactics that no longer work.

Heh^TM.

==+++++==

This doesn’t surprise me either. In fact, I saw this coming a long time ago and all time has done is prove me right.

By way of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) comes this revelation:

This is the split of administrators vs. teaching staff at the top 25 endowed universities.

We are investing in bureaucracy over actual education.

One must remember that the main function of a bureaucracy is to perpetuate itself and expand its power. Whether you are talking about a government bureaucracy or educational bureaucracy, it has the same purpose.

==+++++==

Here’s yet another thing that wasn’t surprising, that being someone on the Left blaming Trump for the mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport. All this proves to me is that the accuser is close-minded and woefully ignorant of how things work when it comes to the hiring of air traffic controllers.

A prominent Democrat, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), is blaming President Donald Trump for the recent devastating plane crash in Washington, D.C., suggesting that his action of freezing the hiring of federal employees played a key role in the tragedy. Crockett pointed to Trump’s political agenda, particularly in the aviation industry, as a contributing factor, arguing that the crash could have been prevented if stricter oversight had been in place. While the investigation is still ongoing, the remarks have sparked a fierce political debate, with Trump blaming the deadly crash on the left’s DEI initiatives, which hired based on gender and racial diversity rather than merit.

--snip--

However, the White House’s Rapid Response social media account put Crockett in her place.

“Wrong. Federal air traffic controllers are EXEMPT from the hiring freeze. Stop lying,” the account wrote on X.

This follows a Squad member's dramatic reaction after CNN’s Scott Jennings reported that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass requested the city appoint an entire LGBTQ leadership team for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He questioned how much it matters what color the firefighters are when someone’s house is burning down.

In response, Crockett suggested hiring unqualified people of color over qualified white men is more important.

So, she’s a racist and thinks people should be hired or not hired based solely on the color of their skin? I have to wonder if she has a KKK member somewhere in her family tree? (Yes, I know she’s black, but we all know that doesn’t mean anything, particularly after so many generations.)

So she thinks the way to combat racism is to use racism as a means of doing so? She has obviously been binge-drinking the hypocrite Kool-Aid.

But it still comes down to how air traffic controllers are hired and trained. It isn’t like they are hired on Monday and are sitting in an air traffic control center or control tower two weeks later. It takes months of classroom training and years of hands-on experience to become an effective air traffic controller, DEI not withstanding.

Not everyone who is hired makes it through the training, either because they do not have the ability or the mental and emotional fortitude to fill that role. Most people don’t have what it takes to be an air traffic controller as it can be a very stressful profession. In fact, the attrition rate for air traffic control trainees runs 40-50%. If you start limiting the people that are hired per Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s demand, will that attrition rate climb?

Of course it will.

==+++++==

Here’s yet another story that doesn’t surprise me in the least.

I have stopped trying to figure out why movie makers are working so hard to destroy themselves. I have better things to do with my time. But it looks like their latest attempt at destroying themselves is working. It seems their latest movie remake of the Three Musketeers, is a woke disaster.

The Disney formula of mixing a beloved classic with moonbattery to create an unwatchable remake does not make money. Yet the French decided to give it a try, wokifying The Three Muskateers into Toutes Pour Une. The result is as you might expect:

The heroine is no longer d’Artagnan, but Sara, a young girl who is shocked to discover that the three musketeers charged with looking after the Queen of France are in fact… women.

The Three Musketeers are no longer Frenchmen. They aren’t even Frenchwomen…

--snip--

Audience response: With just 1271 admissions for 564 screenings, the film maintained a very respectable average of 2 spectators per screening.

Anyone who sat through it was probably a movie critic. But the important thing is to strike a blow against the patriarchy, not to entertain the unwoke masses.

What makes this even worse is that this disaster of a movie was subsidized with with €10 million of French taxpayer money.

This is yet another example of “Get woke. Go broke.”

You have to wonder if these woke folks will ever realize the difference between their beliefs, as delusional as they may be, and the harsh reality of life and human nature.

Probably not.

==+++++==

Here’s yet another thing that was no surprise to me: Electric school buses aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Even big EVs aren’t “Ready For Primetime”.

It appears that the electric school buses purchased for use by the Yarmouth, Maine school system by the Maine Department of Education don’t work.

The administration of now-former President Joe Biden tried to bankroll the use of electric school buses at government schools across the country.

But as the electric buses continue to have massive reliability issues, some schools regret taking the federal handouts and now want help from the Environmental Protection Agency to get themselves out of the program.

--snip--

There are at least six districts reporting massive problems with Lion Electric school buses they bought through the federal program.

The two electric buses received by Yarmouth Schools have been with the district for a year and a half, but they have only been used a few times because of functionality issues, per WGME-TV.

“We are trying to work with Lion to have those buses replaced, or to receive compensation for those buses, but really not making much progress at this point and time,” Yarmouth Superintendent Andrew Dolloff said in comments to the station.

“We run them for a day or so and then we get error messages about engine failures or battery failures,” he described.

Dolloff reported difficulties in communicating with a representative from Lion Electric, which does not have any staffers in the area to handle bus maintenance.

“We are not able to run them until those messages are cleared,” Dolloff added.

School systems need reliable transportation and it appears these electric buses are anything but. That these buses were part of a federal program that used $1 billion taxpayer dollars to buy 5,000 electric buses as a means of pushing Biden’s EV agenda makes it even worse. Those buses cost $200,000 each while a new diesel powered school bus costs approximately half that, and the diesel buses actually work. They are made from long-proven designs and have shown decades of reliable service.

But wait, there’s more!

Even beyond the inflated cost, the poor reliability of these electric buses points to the folly of trying to manipulate the free market for political reasons.

While electric vehicles are advancing in their sophistication, they still have reliability issues that do not affect gas-powered alternatives, such as the fact that they do not charge as easily in the winter.

That is, of course, a relevant factor for Maine, which receives quite a bit of winter weather.

Indeed. When the temperatures are below zero like they were this past evening, charging electric vehicles is problematic. In Maine, just like here in New Hampshire, it gets below freezing from November to March and can get below zero from late December through late February. Of course it doesn’t matter if the buses aren’t functioning even if the batteries are charged.

These are our tax dollars at work.

==+++++==

And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the ski areas are busy, there’s more snow coming, and Monday is coming around once again.