Posts Tagged → 2024
Forgive Me for Asking, But I Must
Forgive me, it is not my intention to cast cold water on our collective rejoicing at having President Donald Trump re-elected, again, and thus at having dodged the Democrat Party’s communist anti-democracy bullet aimed at America’s heart. It is true that Trump’s election gives us hope that our constitutional republic is not over. However, I feel like I am watching a repeat of 2016-2017, where highly qualified conservatives and Republicans were mysteriously bypassed, overlooked, left untouched by the then-new Trump Administration.
Well do I recall someone of real stature writing publicly then (2017-2018) about how mystified he was that no one from Team Trump had contacted him about any of the unique policy strengths he had, and how the new Trump Administration seemed disinterested or lost on whatever that policy subject was. Well, here we go again, from where I sit.
Trump supporters have learned to forgive the 2016-2017 lapses, missteps, failures, and missed opportunities as due to Trump’s unfamiliarity with government, his natural reliance upon long established and unreliable DC Beltway insiders, his understandably misplaced trust in deep staters and other bad actors, his misplaced faith in the weight of federal employees’ oaths of office.
We watched as Trump’s first term slowly, painfully, peeled away the mask from the hostile administrative state, generously bankrolled by American taxpayers and yet also so openly at war with us. We grudgingly learned to accept the stolen 2020 election as the cost of doing business within the parameters set for us by the establishment media, the administrative state, and its constellation of hostile non-government organizations, who then worked furiously from outside to undermine the very rules they set.
And so we miraculously prevailed in 2024, and America as founded yet lives again. And now we have earned the right to say openly, can we please not make the same and very avoidable mistakes again, this time around?
While President Trump is indeed appointing strong leaders who are willing to assertively implement his bold vision for a better government that is closely attuned to America’s founding documents and principles, one question has not been addressed: Who exactly is going to carry out these deep reforms?
With few exceptions (the US Dept. of Commerce being one), nearly the entire federal workforce was already openly insubordinate to President Trump the last time around. And there is no reason to believe that these public employees are going to honor their oaths of office this time. And if Trump follows through on the DOGE promise to eliminate entire federal agencies, and greatly streamline those that remain, then which law-abiding civil servants will there be to carry forward in those same agencies the Trump Administration’s policies?
Put another way, if President Trump installs leaders who, for example, change the name of the radicalized US Environmental Protection Agency, then which of the old USEPA staff will there be to then follow through with the systemic change through every artery and vein inside the old institutional body? If the federal government is going to aggressively do compliance checks or reel back in billions of dollars in Biden grants to far-left NGOs, then who exactly is prepared to hit that ground running? The current federal workforce is almost entirely unreliable, and if left in place, each and every federal employee will become a road block of one. The DOGE people had better be collecting lots and lots of names of prospective civil servants who are prepared to take the place of existing staff, who should end up fired from federal service for any number of good reasons.
House cleaning is promised, but who then moves into the house to give it new life?
Ending where this essay began, it is my turn to publicly complain: No one from Team Trump contacted me, way back in 2016-2020, or now, about my unique area of expertise. I am one of a very small handful of truly conservative Republicans nationwide with extensive hands-on experience with public land issues and wildlife habitat/ land conservation policy. No Trump staffer has called to ask my experienced opinion on federal appraisal standards, especially related to eminent domain, or on rights-of-way issues surrounding federal properties. To my knowledge, none of my few colleagues have been contacted, either. I am not looking for a job. I already run a small business that I really enjoy. But I am willing to volunteer my precious time to help shape sound federal policy that is a significant deviation from the longstanding horrible status quo.
President Trump has the loyalty of so many talented and experienced conservatives, any and all of whom will jump at the opportunity to simply help this one man (and his administration) who can save America. This is the big chance to get America back on track.
So why then do I feel like America via President Trump is once again missing easy opportunities to make lasting, good policy? If the right people do not identify and help fix these longstanding horrible policies, the civil servants will keep them in place, and we will miss a once in a lifetime opportunity for good government.
2024 in Review
Year 2024 was huge. So many changes for good have been achieved this past year. And despite big obstacles remaining for regular American citizens to overcome the Media-Military-Uniparty-Industrial Complex, I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Back in 2008, the Tea Party started, right here in Central Pennsylvania, in response to then US senator Arlen Specter’s clear lack of principle. A town hall Specter was hosting erupted into widespread shouting and wide open frustration after just one person – Katy Abrams – stood up and denounced Specter’s loyalty to politics and self over the elementary interests of his PA constituents. It was the beginning of a grassroots voter rebellion against both the Republican Party establishment, and against the GOPe Uniparty.
That fight has taken on different names and wider meaning since 2008, including Tea Party Patriots, and then just Patriots, and Constitutional Patriots. By 2016 it was the Make America Great Again movement. Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign motto grew into the bipartisan/ nonpartisan “MAGA” take-your-government-back movement. MAGA includes a large portion of black and Hispanic voters, as well as frustrated whites of all income brackets, almost all rural voters, and growing numbers of disillusioned urbanites who bear a big burden living directly under failed Democrat Party policies.
This “populist” bottom-up political evolution-revolution has always been by and of We, The People, despite the Media-Military-Uniparty-Industrial Complex’s efforts to falsely brand it as “racist” or “homophobic” or whatever the silly name is du jour. Plenty of groups and organizations popped up to use, re-direct, or take advantage of our intense populist energy, like Americans For Prosperity. AFP was an early ally, then it merged with industry, and industry then went for open borders, and We, The People saw them as sellouts.
I ran for US Congress in 2009-2010, then state senate in 2012, and again in 2015 before dropping out from a bad hunting injury. Being part of this movement has been fascinating, frustrating, exhilirating, energizing, as well as draining tens of thousands of dollars from my own pockets. I always put my money where my mouth was, and believe now it was all well spent.
As a candidate, my political principles were those of America’s founding: Small, responsive, accountable government, and big citizen.
Because government exists solely for the benefit of We, The People, we are now heading into a direct head-on clash between the citizens who own the government – basically the Frankenstein federal bureaucracy, and the posh individual taxpayer-funded Marxist denizens of that Frankenstein bureaucratic behemoth.
Trump is our We, The People champion. Because Trump has suffered a martyr’s mistreatment as he seeks to return power, rights, and decision making to We, The People, he has taken on almost a god-like stature among so many people. The blatantly stolen 2020 election cemented what many Americans already knew in their gut, that we are in a deadly serious combat over raw power.
Despite intense censorship by government and corporations entangled together, new media outlets formed and grew wildly in response to the overtly corrupt establishment media. Americans are hungry for truth or at least an honest opinion. Now the alternative/ new media ecosystem is unbelievably rich, varied, diverse, and useful, while the useless old mainstream media is dying from its own self-inflicted wounds.
Looking back on 2024, it was a year of miracles, a year of difficult trials and tribulations, of intense fear and frustration, of growth and clarity. The difficultues made us Americans stronger. Despite facing immense odds in 2024, the good guys prevailed; hopefully, they are successful in 2025. Recall that some 65 million Americans voted for communism in 2024, so we clearly have real work to do. It remains to be seen if President Trump is as wise and willing to fight as we think he is. God knows, We, The People cannot afford to lose our combat with the Uniparty or its Frankenstein bureaucracy.
Only one of us can emerge victorious, and I hope it is the American citizenry and our Constitution.
[thanks to Ron Boltz for helping me remember a couple facts here]
[ps horrendous human being former failed US president James Carter became deceased in 2024, a net positive for America]
Veterans Day 2024, what does it mean?
The easy answer to the question of what Veterans Day 2024 means is that it means the same thing it has meant since the end of World War I (the Great War) in November, 1918, and that it has meant since becoming an official national holiday in 1938, on the cusp of the World War II: Thank you to our military Veterans, many of whom risked everything, life and limb, to protect us in the Homeland.
Every successful nation in human history has celebrated its military veterans. Some more than others, as many of history’s most aggressive empires were fueled by mere mercenaries bent on looting their victims. Some nations elevated military vets to hero status, including the Russians, the Japanese, and the ancient Spartans. America has a moderate tradition of showing thanks and respect to the men and women who keep our borders free of….invaders…wait, that didn’t happen over the past four years, did it…Well, anyhow, America has a staid and even-headed tradition of showing our thanks to our military Veterans.
That even Democrats have until recently participated in this holiday shows how broadly it was a core part of our national identity.
However, given recent reports that senior US military officers in the Pentagon are conspiring to undermine, subordinate, deflect, delay, and blunt their incoming Commander in Chief’s orders gives every patriot pause. What on earth has happened to the American military that there are constitutionally sworn officers so brazenly willing to violate the chain of command?
As we would expect, these treasonous, insubordinate, oath-breaking military officers are couching their illegal plot in terms of not following President Trump’s “illegal orders.” Whatever that means. I mean, when did President Trump ever give an illegal order to the military? And mind us all, these traitor officers are the. same. people. who just championed and pushed through a new Dept. of Defense policy allowing US military personnel to shoot to kill US citizens. I mean, didn’t this on-its-face illegal policy violate the Posse Comitatus Act? So, these traitors’ definition of “illegal order” is likely to include just about anything President Trump says.
[if you do an internet search of Pentagon directive 5240.01, you will find a ridiculous retinue of false fact checks by Politico, Snopes, Reuters et al by all the usual lying fake news scoundrels]
So just on the face of what we are hearing, the US military is now filled with heavily indoctrinated, politicized, left-wing ideological officers who are hostile to the US Constitution, hostile to the chain of command, hostile to a Commander in Chief who they disagree with. This sure looks like mass insurrection to me, because the military is always supposed to be run by the civilian leadership. There is no excusing this activity, if in fact it is true in any way, because it is yet another dagger aimed at the heart of America, as we were founded.
So in this view of things, the role of US military Veterans takes on a whole new perspective. One wonders if there is not some near future role for the old military officers from the distant and not so distant past. When President Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, one of his first actions must be the wholesale demotion and expulsion from uniform as many of the participants in these lawless and patently insurrectionist activities as can be identified. Courts martial must immediately follow. If the long ongoing communist indoctrination at West Point is as bad as it looks, and the Air Force Academy, as well, very few current military officers can be left in uniform. America will need leaders to take their positions, and what better pool to draw from than those retired elders who already served honorably and patriotically, as opposed to the domestic enemies within who are currently in the Pentagon.
So, in this light, it sure seems that today’s Veterans Day harbors much more meaning than one might think. Dear American Veterans, we might need to call upon you again to serve your fellow Americans once again, if only for a few years while everything gets sorted out. Thank you for your past service and for any service you might have to render to us beginning in early 2025.

Proud West Point graduate and true military combat hero Jack Keith would be horrified at what has happened to America’s military. He would not stand for it, and we need older officers like him to come back and clean house
Only ballots matter, not candidates, not votes, not polls or surveys
With Dementia Joe Bribem dropping out of the election today, the scramble is on to replace him with a credible candidate. Apparently the fur is flying within Democrat Party circles, as people jockey and push to get their preferred candidate nominated.
It doesn’t matter who they choose- Kamala, Hillary, Gavin Newsom. Absolutely none of the potential Democrat candidates make any difference. Puppetmaster Barack Hussein Obama can literally choose Mickey Mouse and still have a good shot at “winning” the November election.
This is due to the fact that the Democrat Party with its RINO enablers perfected voter fraud in 2020, and with even just half of their fraudulent methods enabled again this November, they have a good chance of declaring their candidate, anyone, the winner.
Literal ballot stuffing and voting machine “glitches” in 2020 and 2022 are probably sufficient in 2024 to spam Election Day counting so that regardless of questions raised, the corrupt Democrat establishment media can rush to declare a winner and force it through.
Ballots are all that matter now. Not polls and surveys, not votes, not even voters really matter. Cartloads of fake ballots will still be counted in favor of whomever the Democrat candidate is, just as we watched on video in 2020 in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Arizona.
Here in Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro is rushing to enable a lot of disqualified illegal aliens to vote, by issuing them driver’s licenses and then having automatic motor-voter registration. Get a driver’s license, automatically get registered to vote for more Democrat Party largesse. And it’s actually more diabolical than this. Up in Williamsport a new illegal alien processing center has been set up. These new and very illegal Democrat voters will then be shipped off to conservative political districts, where they will dilute and replace the actual citizens there.
The Democrat Party and its RINO Uniparty “deep state” allies cannot afford to lose this election. Because their mask is off, we all see who they are and what Marxist totalitarian evil they are intent on committing, and if they lose the election, we know exactly what to do to neuter their ill-gotten gains. So everything is on the line for the administrative state, and for We, The People.
Never before has this blog called for American patriots to “ammo up,” at least that I can recall. But now I will say it: Prepare fully for the very worst effort to steal the election and thereby to steal America in the next few months. Talk with your trusted friends and faith community about sticking together in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Be like the original Minute Men; be ready. You have probably lost your vote, and now all you have is your one finger and something to pull with it. That’s the only thing totalitarians respect.
If you doubt me on how bad these people are, look at Joe Biden now: Stepping out of the campaign because he’s got dementia, but staying in the presidency because he wants to. Even though he has dementia and is not qualified to stay there. This is all about Democrat Party power over America, not about what is best for our nation.
CNN debate shows world Biden is a mindless puppet
Interesting how for the past four years leftists, the mainstream media, some establishment Republicans, and partisan Democrats have strenuously defended Joe Biden’s mental incompetence, his well documented influence peddling/ bribery/ selling out of America with China and Ukraine, the stolen 2020 election that put this mindless puppet in power. And last night, the entire world got to see up close that Joe Biden is indeed a dementia-ridden mindless puppet. The man is not in control of his own mind or his own decisions, and has not been for years.
“I don’t understand what he just said, and he doesn’t know what he just said,” President Donald Trump said to the cameras last night in response to one of Joe Bidens’ humiliating mindless mouthful of marbles gobbledygook.
President Trump easily dominated the debate. So easily, that a lot of people are now wondering if it wasn’t an inside set-up to put Joe Biden in the most public spotlight, so that even the most super partisan silo-dwelling rah-rah Democrats would have to finally be confronted with the uncomfortable truth that their man is a mindless puppet. Once they accept that Biden is a mindless robot, they will more willingly try to find someone else to replace him, is apparently the thinking.
After the CNN/Democrat Party-run “debate” ended last night, “moderated” by two partisan political activists who have spent years badmouthing and lying about President Trump, President Trump confidently strode off stage right, and Jill Biden ran out onto the stage to grab doddering ol’ Joe Biden, who was frozen in place, vacantly staring out into the empty studio (remember CNN’s debate rules that were designed to protect Joe Biden and to undermine President Trump – no props, no pieces of paper, no studio audience, microphones turned off…there was no one for Biden to look at, just darkness).
It is clear to everyone who watched last night that Joe Biden is not his own man. He is doing the bidding of others, because he has not his own thoughts in his head. It is sad, and infuriating, because he was illegally installed in 2020, not elected, going from hiding in his basement to the White House without earning it. Someone else, probably America-hating Barack Hussein Obama, has been actually running the American presidency from behind a curtain.
If the true goal was to out Biden as an incompetent, it worked. Because today the wide open public debate among mainstream media Democrats and the official Democrat Party apparatchiks is who will replace puppet Joe Biden for the 2024 election. He clearly cannot continue on as candidate for president; not if the Democrat Party wants to retain a shred of hope of winning the 2024 election.
Everyone sees that Biden is well beyond an Article 25 removal case. Even worse than a constitutional problem, Biden is the very image of final death for the pro-slavery Democrat Party, that should have died out by shame alone in 1865 after plunging America into the first civil war, and losing.
Biden is now suddenly such a huge liability that he ironically threatens to bring down the whole political party that once fraudulently placed him in power. This stuff is drama of a Biblical scale.
How sweet our freedom will taste in November, after the evildoers are ruined, and by their own hand no less.
How was your eclipse experience?
How was your full solar eclipse experience today? I hope it was fun. A lot of Americans traveled long distances to be within the path of the full eclipse, which stretched across America for a couple hours. Though the actual full eclipse itself was just a couple minutes. My friend Jim drove all the way to Ohio from central PA to see the full eclipse, and yet his attention fell prey to a myriad of beautiful 1960s muscle cars lined up by car-and-eclipse enthusiasts. We men are so weak, so easily distracted. It’s great.
This morning I traveled a couple hours to the Pennsylvania-New York border for a business meeting, after which I drove a few minutes north and crossed into New York State. Right on the edge of the full eclipse. For two hours I did my best to enjoy the event, which was greatly hampered by heavy clouds. Like a tornado hunter there on the PA-NY border, I drove around and took up various positions along paved and dirt roads, a cemetery, a bar parking lot, a cow pasture, trying to beat the clouds or at least find a big wide open space that would give me an idea of when the clouds would open up and give a rewarding, clear view.
Was it seven years ago that we had another solar eclipse? That one we watched with friends at Cherry Springs State Park, and handed around our two welding helmets among our gang and also to other gawkers who asked to borrow them for a moment. That was a memorable day, most especially because it was summertime and the sky was blue. Boy was the eclipse perfectly visible on that day.
Gotta say, the welding helmet, turned up to 13, really saved the day today. The memento “Full Solar Eclipse 4/08/2024” glasses given to me by Chuck (thank you very much) were difficult to see through, and impossible to take photos through. The clouds were often heavy, and blocked the sun completely, forget the eclipse. Welding helmets have a pretty big screen, that is also adjustable, and a camera can be held up to it for a properly filtered picture. So not only was I often able to see the eclipse through the clouds with the helmet, some of my best photos came from light cloud cover.
What a miraculous and fabulous universe we inhabit. And no, we can’t blame this eclipse on “climate change.” Nice try, though.

Jim Eisenhart, Jr. may have been easily distracted by the pretty 1960s muscle cars today, but he did capture the best amateur full eclipse picture I saw

The best part of this photo is the little bit of ominous dark sky at the top. The eclipse turned daytime into a weird glow, a sideways light, not something that normally shines down. These signs lacked shadows, despite the bright sunlight (not sunshine) on them
Did FOX News throw the fight?
Much left-windrow hay has been made over the past week over FOX News settling out of court with Dominion Chinese Voting Machine Co., which FOX News had correctly, accurately, and with great piles of evidence described as being inaccurate and likely corrupted by the machines’ illegal connection to the Internet and to flashdrives.
Plus there was Dominion’s Eric Coomer bragging about how he did or would or had used his position at Dominion to block President Trump from receiving the actual vote tally Trump had earned on Election Day 2020. Coomer was Dominion’s director of security and had unique access into and control of the voting machines across America, and so his threat or bragging really amounted to something substantial. Basically the guy was bragging about having tampered with the most important election in Western Civilization in the past 100 years.
Coomer’s many partisan gaffes and showing of illegal playing cards, so to speak, would play quite well in a court room in favor of FOX News. A jury would have a tough time discounting Coomer’s claims to have illegally thrown the 2020 election.
So why did FOX News suddenly settle with Dominion, when the legal eagle work, like depositions and evidence production and cross examination and arguments, had just begun? Normally, it makes no sense for someone who has the evidence on their side to suddenly roll over and give up. And again, on the left side of the hay windrow, this settlement is being purveyed as an indication that President Trump was wrong to criticize the 2020 election outcome. This legal settlement is being interpreted by some as a vindication of Biden’s claim to have won the 2020 election fair and square.
So here is what seems to be happening to my jaded eyes: FOX News sure looks like it is unnecessarily rolling over and dying in order to paint the widespread claims of 2020 election interference and vote fraud as baseless, empty, and without merit.
And why would FOX News do this?
Because FOX News is owned by never-Trumper Republican Rupert Murdoch and his two registered Never-Trumper Democrat Party sons.
Not too long ago the Murdochs had already gone to one great and painful length to hurt President Trump’s 2024 re-election possibilities by officially declaring Trump persona non exista and persona non grata on FOX News. That is, FOX News reporters and talking heads and hosts were/ are not allowed to even mention President Donald J. Trump’s name on air, unless it is in a negative context. The Murdoch family’s goal is to make Trump invisible and thereby politically irrelevant.
The Murdochs’ political declaration of war on Trump via a supposed news reporting channel is an open declaration of war against the politically conservative FOX News audience. This is not a bluff, this is literally laying all your cards on the table, come what may. It carries real risk to the FOX News brand and to the Murdochs’ financial future.
So…Dominion…when it has now become apparent to everyone watching American politics that all the bogus criticism of Trump and the fake lawsuits against Trump and the fake criminal accusations against Trump are not only having no effect on Trump’s standing with American voters, but are actually bolstering his claim among voters to be the greatest innocent political victim in human history, and thus bolstering his just demand to be the re-elected president in 2024, it appears that the Murdoch Family had only one card left to play: The Dominion card, which looks to me like either the Joker card or the Suicide King card.
The FOX News settlement with Dominion appears to be a last-ditch effort by Trump’s FOX-RINO enemies to undermine his complaints about the 2020 election.
Because normal people would not normally give up the princely sum of $787 million dollars to settle with someone they believe to be unworthy of the money, it appears that the Murdochs are falling on their sword here to create the very public impression that they were unable to press forward with the Dominion lawsuit. Because, you know, the 2020 election “was soooo secure” and “sooooo clean.” Because in truth it was not, but such is the Murdoch family’s collective hatred for President Trump that they will deliberately pop a sacrifice fly ball or throw the fight in order to help the other side win, even at such a great financial and credibility cost to themselves.
And here is the thing the Murdoch family members don’t realize about this crazy expensive gesture of theirs: Normal people are already hip to the crazy shit that super rich people like the Murdochs do, and this throwing of the fight with Dominion looks like just more crazy rich people shit.
And given how corrupt all the Never Trumper people have been, all the lies they have told and unethical things they have done to try to stop President Trump, who is to say that this “settlement” isn’t just an even bigger charade, where Dominion quietly signs the money back over to FOX News? These people, Dominion and FOX News and the Murdochs, have very little credibility with most Americans, because it already looks like they will sell their grandmas for ten bucks to try to hurt Trump, again.
Long Live King President Donald John Trump, mofos. Nice try, but We, The People are going to run the table next year and coronate our guy, our hero, our savior.
UPDATE: FOX News has terminated its employment relationship with host Tucker Carlson, one of the very few journalists remaining at FOX News who was trusted by at least half of America (conservatives). This is yet another act by establishment elites (Murdoch family) to limit the accurate information available to American citizens. Yes, the Murdochs are damaging their Fox News business by behaving this way, but they care more about getting control of you than they care about money. They already have a lot of money, and that has whetted their appetite for getting something even better…control of you. And they can most easily achieve this by limiting the information available to you and then shaping your opinions with the fake news and misinformation they dole out. Bye bye Fox News!