“I’ve Had it Up to Here” by Cybersmythe

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

“I’ve Had it Up to Here” by Cybersmythe

You know what? I’ve had it up to here (points to neck, thinks better of it and points to top of head) with people telling me I’m going to regret Trump’s presidency. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been bombarded on all sides by stories about how Trump voters started regretting their votes on Inauguration Day and there’s an avalanche, or perhaps even a cascade, like one of preferences, that is causing MAGAts, whoever they are, to rue the day, and we’re talking imminent rue-age, because the righteous will righteously rise up and smite the unrighteous usurper. In a righteous manner, right?

The most recent was an description on LinkedIn talking about how since Republicans abandoned Nixon, they’re sure to abandon Trump. I got sent a notice about it because a writer I know commented that Republicans aren’t going to be able to abandon Trump. I was devastated, not because I am anticipating rue-age with dread, but because the writer in question is someone I thought had half a clue. I try to have better friends than that.

One of the things I’ve noted is that the people who believe in the value of the status quo never seem to have question whether or not they’re doing the right thing. Sure, there are questions among the left, but they’re about whether or not they need to push even harder to organize and collectivize and whether or not they’re incredibly awesome or merely amazingly awesome. There’s no reflection, no attempts to determine if the goal is really the nirvana that they expect, and certainly no attempts to look at intermediate results to determine if what they have achieved so far is better or worse.

Not that wishful thinking is absent from our side and…you know what? We first have to deal with the critical issue that our side has. There’s an elephant in the room that needs addressing: We don’t have a good way of describing ourselves and I’m tired of talking about “our side” versus “their side”. Left and right were never very good descriptions even as they were useful labels. When I describe my beliefs, I talk about the desire to reduce the size and scope of government at all levels. I talk about the inherent value people have simply because they’re people and not just yet another member of yet another interest group. I talk about just wanting to be left alone. “I can do what I want” should be the default unless there’s a good reason why it must not be.

I know lifelong Democrats who have expressed to me their desire to reduce the size and scope of government, and who just want to be left alone. Those aren’t partisan issues, those are people issues and it’s as critical to freedom and liberty here and now as the antislavery movements of prior centuries were then and there. You, and I do mean YOU, are not the property of anyone but yourself. I have no wish to control you, just as I have no wish for you to control me. It’s just the right thing to do.

So, when I see Trump’s lieutenant Musk and his battalion of wrecking balls rampaging through USAID I can’t help but cheer them on. Is this a sign that Trump is a fascist? Oh, HELL no! Real fascists hired an army bureaucrats so as to spread their power more effectively. Fascists would not be laying people off so as to conserve more and more of the national resources. They would be hell bent on increasing their force of minions to convert more and more of the treasury to their personal wealth.

“But,” some have said, “Trump fired all those inspectors general. They were supposed to rein in his power, wheren’t they? So firing them must be a bad thing, right?” Well, no. Some people may have gotten the idea that the president works for those in the executive branch, when the opposite is true. The inspectors general are there to make sure that the president gets his way from the various parts of the executive government. They work for him, therefor it is essential that they have his trust. In Trump’s first time, they all betrayed him so they all have to go.

“But Trump pardoned all those insurrectionists. They were trying to overthrow the legitimate government! That’s evil, right?” Well, no. What happened on January 6, 2021 was not an insurrection, it was a protest. Democrat constituents protest like that all the time, including breaking things inside the capital building. Enough information has come out about election irregularities since then to show that the demonstrators were likely correct. Besides which, there was an orderly transfer of power. If it was an insurrection, then you have to explain why they didn’t actually do a violent overthrow of the government instead of just taking an impromptu tour of the capital.

“But Trump is going to gut the FBI.” You mean the same FBI that has committed a significant chunk of resources to tracking down little old ladies because of a trumped-up “insurrection.” We can surely do without those agents because they haven’t done a lick of work in years. I’m afraid I can’t get worked up about it.

“But Trump revoked the security clearances of retired intelligence officials. We need them to fight the War on Terror!” You mean the intelligence officials that created a “dossier” that was a work of fiction from beginning to end? The same intelligence officials that said that the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the hallmarks of foreign disinformation? Those intelligence officials? It may seem like tit-for-tat to revoke their clearances, but just what does a government retiree need with a security clearance? Shouldn’t they be out of government work? That is what “retired” usually means.

“But Trump granted security clearances to people who aren’t elected!” Um, well, yeah. The people he hired to clean up the mess need access to find out whether or not the agencies they’re looking at are doing what they’re supposed to do. Lots of records are incomplete, possibly deliberately so, and so they have to be reconstructed from those that remain.

“But Elon Musk was never elected and he’s a foreigner!” So? The president has the authority to hire people. And, outside of certain roles mandated by law, he doesn’t need anybody’s permission to do it. Elon is doing what Trump promised to do during the election. Those promises are a large part of why Trump won the election. We don’t care where he’s from, we like what he’s doing, and we’d like to continue and grow.

“But Trump is going to dismantle the Department of Education? How can this be a good idea when education is so screwed up?” You might consider the fact that the Department of Education has been core to the education of Americans since the oldest of the current crop of teachers was in elementary school. If the DoE isn’t responsible for the mess that we’re in, who else could it be? Don’t you think doing something different might be a good idea? I even think there was a saying about always doing the same thing and expecting different results. Anybody remember?

That is, in fact, the real crux of the matter. Trump is changing things, and that’s not comfortable for some people. For decades, many Americans have been crying for change, not just changing the nameplate on the door of the Oval Office, but real substantive change, and it is like our pleas have finally been heard. Will the change be all to the good? Maybe not, but doing the same old same old wasn’t going to cut it any more. Maybe some good people will be caught up in these changes and have their lives torn asunder, but while I feel for them these changes certainly seem to be essential for the country has a whole to survive.

So, regret DOGE? Regret Trump? I’m about as likely to regret holding my newborn daughter in my trembling hands. Maybe the change will cause pain for me and mine, but I can’t imagine any such pain to be but a temporary condition. Anything they’re doing can also be un-done and things that should be done should be done with transparency in the full light of day so we can all agree that it’s what’s right.

That is why I do not regret the actions already taken and why I do not anticipate regretting the actions yet to come. I’m delighted by what’s happened, not devastated, and I just wish those people salivating over my regret would go away, or at least stop trying to sell me on the idea.

99 thoughts on ““I’ve Had it Up to Here” by Cybersmythe”

  1. Some interesting links below this post in Reader. Some Yob spouting about “MAGAts” and claims of Biden needing/being loaded up on Drugs for the then upcoming Debate. Tempted to go ask how that went for him.
    Seen someone tracked down these “Grassroots” supposedly “MAGA” folks suddenly protesting DOGE/Elon etc, and they are paid protestors via Bloomberg, Soros, and Buffet et al.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Some might think the Democrat Socialists are actually hard core capitalists because of how they love to spend money hiring their protestors and Antifathugs. They’d be wrong, because they have been using your tax dollars laundered through multiple organizations, and not their own money. That’s what socialists do.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Amen. I’m not particularly bothered by the leftist fantasies – I’ve lived in Realville for a long time – but compassion compels me to at least hope recovery may someday be possible for them.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m not sure I have that much “compassion”. I kind of hope that there is a Larry Niven version of Hell where people punish themselves for eons until or unless they finally realize their mistakes and try to reform. If it does exist, it’s probably got a whole hell of a lot of recent Muslim residents.

      Like

  4. “Damn their fake torpedoes of lies, full speed ahead”.
    And may God have mercy on their fetid souls, we shouldn’t, we should send them all to hell. We won’t, we’re too good for that. Given the chance, yes I would push each and every Lying Liberal whore out of a helicopter, good thing I’ll never get the chance.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Trump has done at least one thing that I strongly disapprove of, and that I hope will not be disastrous: His choice for Secretary of Labor, a supporter of the Pro Act. On the other hand, his opponent would almost surely have pushed hard for the Pro Act, and there’s a chance that Trump or even Congress will block it.

    In general, though, the thing I worry about with Trump is that he won’t move forward fast enough on his present course, or have as much impact on the established system as he seems to be trying for. As in the old joke about lawyers at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, I look at what he and much have done so far and say “A good start.”

    Like

      1. I would consider that an ideal outcome. But I fear she might be the first Trump nominee who gets Yes votes from Democrats . . .

        Like

        1. Since she’s been endorsed by Whine-whatever the school union czar, you’re probably right. I just hope enough Reps spot that little issue and soundly reject her.

          Liked by 1 person

  7. The attacks on DOGE workers being security risks are the most irrational to me. I’ve worked with security clearances a lot, and the risk accusations are simply scare tactics, not reality.

    When investigating, it depends on how much secret info they’ll see. Confidential is the simplest: Got a US birth certificate and fill out this questionnaire on places you lived, you’re probably good to go. Secret you get a bigger questionnaire and may be asked about references. They may check who is your neighbor. Top Secret? Same, but now they’ll investigate your references and neighbors, teachers, relatives, etc. Clearances above that? Investigate all those folks’ neighbors, teachers, relatives, etc., in an expanding circle of contacts.

    I’ve heard of people taking years to get cleared if they had dodgy contacts in their history, but whose expertise was valued enough to go through the process.

    The easiest people to clear are those who are young. The cliché teenager who has spent his young life playing with his computer in his parent’s basement is usually a breeze to clear, because he’s gone nowhere and done nothing.

    Yes, tracing his online activities is necessary, but it’s doubtful he’s any kind of foreign agent–how could he get recruited? He likely doesn’t have the spy tradecraft to hide from the NSA/FBI, and if they’re focusing on him specifically, his chances of maintaining a cover are pretty much nil.

    Yes, there are ideologically driven persons (Manning, for example) that are exceptions to this, but they are usually security involved from the start and know tradecraft to hide, not developers brought in to focus on a project.

    Truth is, the older and more experienced candidates always take longer to investigate, because there’s more to investigate! A mid 40s state department bureaucrat drone who lived abroad and married a foreigner from a hostile country is a much bigger problem–there’s so much more to dig through!

    And Elon? Seriously, love him or hate him, look at it this way: Did South Africa, Canada, Russia, or whoever give him the opportunity to build his companies? What could a foreign power offer the richest man in the world who is now the most powerful man in the world’s sidekick? It boggles the mind.

    Like

    1. There’s a reason the FBI, CIA, and NSA all have recruiting booths at the career fairs at BYU. Mormons, especially young ones, have a stupid easy time passing background checks, generally.

      And given that the data is being sifted through by AI enhanced programs looking for certain conditions to trigger deeper searches, it’s not like these young people really have access to ‘all my private information!’. If your data isn’t triggering any warnings, they have no reason to go look at it. And why on God’s green earth would Elon, or any of the people he’s paying to be there, want to steal your info? In the current economy it’s not like there’s much money to steal from the average household. They sure as hell don’t care if you fudged your charitable contributions by a hundred dollars or so for your itemized deductions.

      And I know that all the breathless fear mongering is an attempt to get the common rabble to rise up and strike down the interlopers so that the career politicians and their bureaucratic buddies can go back to ruling us by Devine right, but it is all so idiotic. How can any reasonably intelligent person fall for that?

      Like

      1. Both Trump and Musk are far too rich to bother with (as in the movie Blues Brothers) “the small change shit”.

        Like

    2. I am not clear at all (aside from BoeLockWhatever wanting to hire pre-cleared people who can still get briefings on stuff, nevermind which contracts they previously steered to BoeLockWhatever) why one’s clearance does not go “poof!” when one leaves the job that required it. If someone (like, say, a retired three star who gets tapped for a needs-clearance job, that investigation to reclear them should be fairly short.

      Like

      1. For any clearance, it’s all about “Need To Know”. Having a clearance doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to see any classified info you want. It’s only for the info you’ve been “read into”–it’s limited by whatever.authority decided you have that “Need”.

        When you leave the project, you usually get debriefed to remind you to keep quiet. If you move to another project, you get read into that one.

        Periodically, the security people check on you to see if you still need a clearance. If you don’t need it, it lapses.

        If you later need a clearance, they do an investigation again, but it’s usually just over the period your clearance lapsed.

        For the big wigs (generals, nuke bomb physists, retired spies and the like) they may keep their clearance after retirement if it’s anticipated they will need to be consulted on their area of expertise. Keep their clearance current and maybe keep them on retainer, just in case.

        Of course, some say those retainers are just payback for services rendered before they were retired, but that’s just cynicism, right?

        Bottom line is every clearance is costing someone something, and the higher the clearance, the higher the cost–and it quickly gets very pricey above Top Secret.

        I had a clearance just because I had access to a room that occasionally had high level stuff in it, and the clearance was just in case I accidentally saw something.

        if I had tried to see anything classified that I didn’t have a “Need”, the best case would be losing the clearance and my job. The worst case was either Leavenworth for a long time, or execution for espionage.

        And no, that wasn’t a joke. I had annual briefings to remind me of that fact.

        Of course, some animals are more equal than others.

        When I heard about things like a certain bathroom server with top secret contents, or a box by a Corvette with same, I was shocked and horrified. Someone deserved jail time at least.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Bradley Manning would not have likely been much of a security threat had there been a working Army IG, or a working security environment in the location he was deployed to. Certainly his commander and NCOIC both deserved to be inhabiting cells next to Manning while he was incarcerated.

      Like

  9. January 6 2021 was a mostly peaceful protest. Without arson. And evidence shows that most of the un-peaceful parts resulted from infiltration by the enemy, paid agitators, and Fibbie ‘assets’ hiding in the crowd. Who was that on those videos, smashing in doors and windows? Why did the Fibbies make no attempt to find out? Why were they not arrested by SWAT teams at 2 AM, instead of Grandma?

    Why would the most heavily armed demographic in America stage an ‘insurrection’ without bringing a single gun to the party?

    The Department Of Maleducation needs to be abolished and all of its bureaucrats barred from interfering in education ever again. They’ve spent 47 years and $2 TRILLION destroying our public schools. Since it was established — by Jimmeh Cahtah’s executive order in 1977 — those schools have gone nowhere but downhill. ‘New Math’ anybody? ‘Whole Word’ reading? And when their ‘reforms’ produced high school graduates unable to read or do 4th-grade arithmetic, their only ‘solution’ was more of the same.

    Like

    1. I’m going to dump on the “New Math” term. Mainly because the stuff that was taught under that name dates to the 1950s to ’70 or so, and was pretty well abandoned by 1970 or sooner. For background, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math

      The main emphasis on it was working with concepts, and (assuming the caffeine kicked in correctly) doing math in bases other than 10. At least where I was going to school (midwest metro suburbia, fairly good school district) in the ’60s, it wasn’t used.

      Tom Lehrer did a song about it, circa mid ’60s. “New Math”

      OTOH, “Common Core Math” is a [redacted] [redacted] reality, still being “taught” now.

      Like

      1. Ah new math, I think common core is new new new math… I had a conversation with one my kids elementary school librarians who told me “new math” was a panicked reaction to the Soviets getting an object in orbit first. He also said they knew they would lose half of the kids by changing the methods but thought it was worth the effort. That does sound like the kind of crap “Dr.’s of Education” would come up with.

        To be fair, getting a Doctorate in a field that was approaching universal literacy and numeracy is hard. So of course they have to find “new methods” to justify their PhD’s and later to fund their lives in the centrally planned academia. I remember Dr. Pournelle noting his Mom achieved universal literacy in a one room school house. I vote we go back to those methods. Even if some of the kids never get to calculus, at least the can read and do math well enough to handle the day to day.

        Like

        1. Look, guys, my husband is a mathematician. The way my kids were taught math in school is indecipherable TO HIM.
          I cut through it my normal way, by teaching them to do the things the way that works, and tell the teacher to take a hike.
          Like…. doing multi-factorial addition by GUESSING the results is one of the things I remember being pushed on them.

          Like

          1. “husband is a mathematician“

            –

            So is mine. He was going to be a math teacher until he did his first student teaching stint, in a middle school … Changed careers.

            Our son was out sick for two weeks when they got to the “say how you are going to solve this before solving” grid. Got copies of what kid had been missing. Ran into the grid and went “Huh?”. Went and asked. Also got the “guess and check”. “Do the math” was not an acceptable answer. Well … um … guess what? “Guess and check” was not an acceptable answer to us as parents.

            In HS we got criticized for tutoring our kid. WTH? And, yea. Encouraged him getting tutoring in college too, if/when needed.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. Some of the world’s smartest people spent 3,000 years figuring out how to do math. Their ways work. Every time. But “It’s HAAARRRD!!“

            So a bunch of Progressive! types set out to change math so it wouldn’t require any actual work. Their ways don’t work, most of the time. But they’re ‘easy’.

            Unless you actually understand math, that is.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. I introduced my kids to Tom Lehrer’s new math song during the Covid lockdowns when one of them got stuck on a math problem. It had a great impact on improving their confidence and humor about teaching methods.

        Like

        1. New Math neeew math, it won’t do you any good to review math

          it’s so simple, so very simple

          that only a child can do it.

          Like

      3. Ugh – New Math! I caught New Math in my neck in the 3rd grade, and detested it. I was doing just fine with the Old Math, thank you – but that whole experiment put me off mathematics for life. Which is a pity, because I might have done OK, otherwise.

        Yeah, hurrah for fads in education – we spend decades getting over (if ever) having them inflicted on us. I understand that Common Core math is even more of a train wreck.

        Like

        1. Same here. New Math, 3rd grade, 1968. Ruined me for life. According to “standardized tests” I had lots of potential to excel at math, but the crap they taught me in school was gibberish.

          Like

          1. Yep – I managed to scrape through high school algebra, and scored well enough on the SAT in the math section that I didn’t have to take any remedial college math … but I was so put off by anything to do with numbers that I never actually learned how to figure percentages until I had a sales job in my 40ies and had to work out for people how much off the marked price was for on items in the luxury department that were down, as the department store was closing.

            Yeah, thanks educators who thought that New Math was just the bee’s knees….

            Liked by 1 person

      4. Hmmmm … math in other than base 10 was a hoot which I loved … and years later learned to read hexadecimal on the fly for work, so that was cool. Even more years later I did lots of that math with my own kids when we homeschooled for a few years and they did great with it too.

        The other possibly-new-math-thing I remember from grade school was “set theory.” It makes me think of the IQ test questions about which item does not belong. Boring without context.

        None of that stuff showed up in high school. If they really wanted to compete with the Soviets, they would have pushed algebra down a couple of grades and had high schoolers graduating with calculus as a regular expectation. None of that happened in Nowhereville, Flyover, so I dunno.

        Like

        1. Locally has three routes into HS math, none (if you can’t pass the junior state math assessment that can mess with your senor year class schedule), middle (through to pre calculus senor year), higher (AP calculus senor year). OTOH few (err, none) pass AP calculus test good enough to get college credit for it. In theory should make college calculus “easier”.

          Like

        2. I graduated HS in 1970. I must have been exposed to non-decimal based systems because Tom Lehrer’s song didn’t throw me. OTOH, didn’t use non-decimal until college, primarily in a digital circuits class. (The last question in the final was “X is is base 3. Convert it to base 7.” I screwed up; should have gone to base 10 as an interim, then converted, but I tried to do it one-shot and ran out of time. Might still have earned an A in the course. Also learned KISS. :)

          Like

      5. Never name anything “New N” because one day it will be the old thing. . . but that was the point. Everyone can see how bad that was, in hindsight, and so we should learn from that.

        Like

    3. One small correction to make. I have heard of one demonstrator bringing a gun to the Capitol. (Plenty of other brought guns to DC, that they left locked safely in their cars.) He did not discharge the firearm. The same cannot be said of, say, the Capitol Police.

      Like

  10. We are now in the early days of “The walls are closing in on DOGE” meme … and like the “Walls are closing in on Trump” meme is just more wishful thinking from the left …

    always remember that the left will tell you what they are afraid of … again you only take flak when you are over the target …

    Like

  11. This post perfectly captures how I’ve felt for the last two years.

    Now, I’m enjoying the winning. I’m not fed up at all. Reading Instapundit headlines makes me want to jump up and do happy dances rather than grind my teeth.

    Liked by 1 person

      2. No.

        Tea Party was “pretty please.”

        Trump and DOGE are still polite, but firm.

        If that fails, what comes next will be less polite.

        Like

  12. re: the FBI, the problem is not that agents haven’t been doing any work but what they’ve been working at. There are few things more harmful than doing efficiently that which should not be done at all (to borrow/adapt a phrase). The people who spent the past 4 years doing that need to be got rid of.

    Like

  13. Responding to just a small part of your post: “We don’t have a good way of describing ourselves and I’m tired of talking about “our side” versus “their side”.

    First reject the marxist slur “capitalist”. We advocate “free enterprise”. Focus on FREEDOM. Even the leftists know this. When they talk about abortion, they talk about a woman’s right to choose. They couch all their transgender advocacy likewise.

    I want the right to buy property and build what I want on it. I want the right to educate my children as I choose. I want the right to defend myself against a criminal aggressor. I want the right to choose whatever version of healthcare that I believe in. I want the right to worship or not worship as I choose. I don’t want the “right” to other people’s money. I only want the fair chance to perform a service for them that they find useful enough to pay me.

    Like

    1. “Right to buy property and build what I want on it. I want the right to educate my children as I choose. I want the right to defend myself against a criminal aggressor. I want the right to choose whatever version of healthcare that I believe in. I want the right to worship or not worship as I choose.“

      –

      Agree to most. Will preface that “my rights end where yours begin”, and “your rights end where mine begin”. Because not mutually exclusive. That means “Buy property and build what I want on it as long as it does not affect the property that does not belong to me.” Which means: No fouling air above, and water that flows through, or under, or other common/natural resources that also make use of the land. Yes that brings up prey and predator species that may trespass. Have the right to keep off, and to force to move off, do not have the right to destroy.

      Like

        1. both of those are socialist formulations that I was taught by REAL SOCIALISTS.
          Guys, you don’t need to say that. violating other people’s property is the same as their violating yours, period.
          Those phrases are used to bring in “common sense” government regulation.

          Liked by 1 person

        1. 100%

          They get a say about the continually barking dog, as long it cannot be proven that they are instigating (teasing) said barking dog. But they do not get a say about *children playing in the backyard, or the dog barking when playing with children. Also do not think they get a say about having farm animals on small lots … as long as not polluting common waterways. Do not get a say about barbecuing meat, just because neighbors disagree on meat. Do get a say about what is burned in a burn barrel in the backyard (as long as fire is contained to the backyard). Some air smoke pollution is more dangerous than others.

          Just a few examples.

          (*) Not in an HOA, Thank God. But our neighbors had this exact complaint! The complaining neighbors live across the street and one house down from a grade school and (why they were complaining) back against a in-home-day-care (had 3 dogs too), that was there when they moved in. Family neighborhood – grade school. For all that a lot of long term homeowners are like us and kids are well out of the k – 12 school system. Been this way since we moved in. Neighborhood is now transitioning slowly to younger couples.

          Like

    2. For single word “Freedomist” would probably be the logical choice, but like “Libertarian” it could devolve into basically sex, drugs and rock and roll – freedom from all constraints on personal whim or any aspect of societal responsibility.

      As for relevant phrases I prefer “free market” over “free enterprise”, as markets are central to what I believe is the worst system, except for all the others.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Honestly, “capitalist” hasn’t had a bad run, considering. You still get the college socialists blaming it for everything, but half the country supports it, despite all the propaganda.

        Any freedom-based terms are prone to hijacking, as evidenced by Keir Starmer swearing up and down that Britain has freedom of speech. Which is unfortunate because a term like “Freedomist” would hit the nail on the head.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I have no problem with sex, drugs, and rock and roll as long as I get to choose whether to participate or refrain, and I don’t have to clean up after your bad behavior while you were indulging in them.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. I’m very torn on building codes. On the one hand, it is very intrusive and they’re as often as not based on lawsuits, not structural integrity (although “and” is a useful word there). On the other hand, without them real-estate changing hands would become even more expensive.

      Home inspections tend to be fairly cursory because “no one ripped out a structural wall without a permit” is mostly assumed. Without building, plumbing, and electric codes and inspections at the time, every potential buyer would need to pay for a very in-depth inspection.

      Arguably, that should be the case, now, anyway. Hence why I’m torn.

      Like

      1. I worked with somebody whose house burned down in late 2007 just before the housing bubble burst. He was well insured and the insurance paid to rebuild his house. A couple of months into that, I casually mentioned that at least he should be able to get it rebuilt because so many construction workers were out of work. He replied, “You’d think that, but unfortunately it’s not true. The problem is that all the building regulators have nothing to do either, so they all swarm on my rebuild, some of them contradicting the others.”

        The building market would be better off with something like Underwriters Laboratory.

        Like

  14. I worked with a work boat skipper offshore that would come to work clean, leave clean, and avoided bathing the rest of the time. Apparently, he liked it, but as the field supervisor observed: “You’d think he would like that feeling of being clean.” That’s what all this ridiculous banter is about. Some people like things like they were; for whatever reason. You would think they like the feeling of seeing how our dirty government is being cleaned up, but for some reason, they like the filth. They’re the minority, regardless of what the legacy media proclaims.

    Like

  15. I want to be perfectly clear, there is no excuse for Jeffery Epstein, none. If you helped cover it up, if you helped or preyed upon those girls. You should be hung from your cock and balls until you die screaming praying for your mother to save you. If a woman , there are ways to give you the same end. To those who claim to be FBI agents who helped, may you burn alive and then for an eternity in hell and everything you hold dear crushed under the weight of your sins. F, you, F, your mother, F your children.

    Like

  16. They have to believe in the illusionary worlds they’ve created, because otherwise…

    They would be wrong.

    And they have staked everything on Being Right that even the slightest loss would be terrifying.

    Like

  17. Well, I’m disgusted. Apparently the WH had a bunch of “influencers” come to allegedly receive the first Epstein File release. Among other things, I gather they did a little dance. Then it turned out there’s no “there,” there.

    A bunch of people are incandescently angry and even more don’t like the apparent favoritism. Just really, really badly handled. What were they thinking?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Summing up a 45-minute livestream by Mike Cernovich:

      The event was one of a series of new media outreach events the White House is doing. It was scheduled before Pam Bondi was confirmed and covered a bunch of topics, not just Epstein.

      When Pam Bondi announced the Epstein files would be released, she thought she had all of them. She later learned the SDNY office held everything juicy back and is working to get the rest of the documents and punish the agents who disobeyed the order.

      The binders/today’s release were an attempt to be transparent with what she had. The “influencers” were briefed on what was going on and told not to get people’s hopes up.

      The meeting had to move to a different office partway through, and their route took them in front of a bunch of photographers hanging around for the Starmer visit. The “photo op” was an accident.

      The contents of the binders were embargoed until 3 PM so as not to step on the toes of the Starmer event, but the photos came out before then, fueling speculation.

      Other topics covered at the meeting included allowing seed oil-free baby formula on the market, getting Vitamin A to children from low-income families, and that HHS will be responding to every one of Rand Paul’s subpoenas, ending the stonewall on the Fauci Files.

      Make of that what you will. My personal take is that the SDNY thing was unfortunate but probably inevitable; the optics sucked for a mixture of reasons, some preventable and some not; and the snark about all this is getting tiresome. I just don’t care that some people got to see Epstein’s address book a few hours earlier than the rest of the world.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. When Pam Bondi announced the Epstein files would be released, she thought she had all of them. She later learned the SDNY office held everything juicy back and is working to get the rest of the documents and punish the agents who disobeyed the order.

        And this is why I maintained that President Trump needed bucellarii.

        Because the next thing that needs to happen is that a picked team loyal to the President shows up at that FBI office and the SDNY US Attorney’s office and arrests everyone working there on “conspiracy to obstruct justice” and insubordination charges.

        Strip away all the verbiage, and this is a mutiny by an armed element of the security forces.

        Like

        1. Agreed. One proposal I saw was to make every official involved swear that they turned over all of the evidence—to someone loyal in another jurisdiction. That way, the lie can be prosecuted outside NY or DC. In addition to whatever other charges they can bring.

          Like

        2. A perp walk of the denizens of the DoJ SDNY and NY FBI offices. With full trad-media alerts, so the cameras are all there.

          Like

        4. Yes.

          US marshals should fill the bucellari role in this situation.

          Lock everyone from that office in the same cells the put the j6ers in, and keep them there until a forensic examination of *everything* is *complete*.

          Like

      3. I don’t know if the “influencer dance,” (a clip I saw in passing) was a fake or just people being stupid for the camera. Tend to agree with the posts that argued the influencers had just sold their independence (or appearance thereof) and this was a mistake.

        Some of the fury was, or should have been, aimed at the House Judiciary committee, where some utterly clueless person set up a “link to the files,” that was a music video instead. That was what really set off people who do rape counseling/shelter work, by making a joke out of the whole awful situation.

        Also saw an item this morning that Ghislane Maxwell has an appeal going right now which may also delay release.

        We were going to get screw-ups, and this one seems worse because things have been largely going well.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I haven’t looked into the dance, but Cernovich says they were blindsided by a wall of cameras, so I wouldn’t count on it being more than a surprised reaction. Paparazzi shots are never glamorous unless they’re staged.

          I’m not convinced this is a blow to independence. Some of these “influencers” have been ride-or-die MAGA for 9 years now. If all of the rallies, press conferences, galas, interviews, and Mar-a-Lago visits haven’t compromised them, I don’t think a binder, a pen, and a challenge coin are going to do it.

          I get that access journalism corrupts (see: the games industry), but the marginal cost here is so low that I don’t get the reaction. If the risk is that these influencers are going to get corrupted to the side of MAGA, that ship sailed a long time ago. Anyway, that’s my two cents.

          RE: Screw-ups. Yeah, the contrast is a killer. People have gotten so used to miracles that ordinary forward progress looks like a setback.

          Like

  18. Right on cue, the NBC nightly newts had a “former federal employee,” face and voice disguised, bemoaning losing job, home, and other things, and said person and child are out in the streets, looking for work, which is of course hard with a small kid in tow. The person “feared retaliation” for complaining.

    Like

    2. How can a ‘former federal employee’ be homeless and out on the streets before there’s been time to miss a single paycheck, much less a rent payment? Rent’s not due until Saturday, not overdue for a few days after that.

      I call bullshit!

      Liked by 1 person

  19. OFF TOPIC

    There was talk about the Amazon changes on February 26th.

    I purchased an ebook from the Kindle store this evening and was able to download it with my Kindle For The PC ap.

    I was also able to convert & DeDRM it with my Epubor Ultimate ap.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. “I was also able to convert & DeDRM it with my Epubor Ultimate ap.“

      –

      Oh! Good. Haven’t been able to deDRM Kindle books for a few months. Epubor does keep on top of the problem, but can take them time.

      Like

  20. yep, have had it up to here (holds hand at forehead) with people whining about what TRUMP has done,

    all i say is $37,000,000,000,000.00

    how welse do you propose they fix that? What, you think it doesnt matter? Happy having to pay 30+% of your paycheck then still mysteriously owe more at tax time?

    im cool with them closing the whole thing down without pay nor expenditure till they have a budget and a plan

    Like

  21. I really don’t understand these nitwits that don’t support the mission of DOGE.

    If you don’t understand the enormous waste and duplicity in our government then you have never worked for it.

    At one time, I held a secret security clearance and was responsible for over $4 million (quite a bit more in today’s dollars) worth of equipment and had access to a nuclear containment facility, in 1971 I was just 20 years old. (Yes I’m a old fart.) The point being that I’m perfectly happy having a 20 year old keyboard warrior going apeshit into my government records. Hell, the FBI already has my records, why would I worry about DOGE???

    Like

    1. Hell, the FBI already has my records, why would I worry about DOGE???

      Heck, if you had a clearance (like me), the ChiComs have your records. Yes, the government is still paying for my identity protection thanks to the OPM hack in 2015.

      Like

      1. “”Heck, if you had a clearance (like me), the ChiComs have your records.””

        Probably.

        At one time, they were kept in a paper folder somewhere and if anyone wanted to see them (before NICS) they actually had to go find them and schulb around in file cabinets and and a inquiry would take more than 3 days.

        No doubt, they probably contained my dental x rays too. I don’t know if they were ever digitized or not. I do know that a inquiry from local police or State Police would yield them nothing but the fact there was a folder but the contents were hidden except for my name. I doubt that the ChiComs are interested in what I know, the program has long since became obsolete and disbanded but I don’t talk about it in meaningful way.

        Like

        1. Old habits die hard.

          A few years back I was discussing work histories online with a stranger who knew about a classified project I worked on.

          I eagerly wrote up one reply containing some detail–then deleted it.

          Keep in mind that the stuff I worked on has been on display in museums for decades (yes, I’m old, too) but those security briefings from long ago popped up in my head. And since I wasn’t sure what had been declassified and when, I did not want to risk violating security.

          But even besides the legal issue, it would have been dishonorable to break my word.

          In any case, as far as I’m concerned, I believe in the minnow vs. the castle defense for wherever my files ended up.

          I could either spend time, money, and worry building and hiding in my castle, fearing who’s got what, or accept that being one minnow in a huge school is probably the best security I can hope for.

          I had a teacher who fancied himself a serious sixties radical. One day, years after the sixties, he made a FOIA request for his FBI records.

          Their opinion of him was essentially “harmless idiot not worth further investigation”.

          I’m comfortable thinking that’s probably my file contents as well. 😀

          Like

      2. Same. Every time my data is in another breach I say the hackers should get in line, the end is waaaaay over there, and if they want to try and cut in line ahead of Chinese State Security, they should be my guest.

        I’ve received various other identity theft protection subs from various other breach remediation efforts, but I guess the OPM one is forever, so at this point when new ones come through I don’t even bother.

        Like

  22. If you wanted to know just how despicable the Donks could be:

    https://nypost.com/2025/03/01/opinion/dems-lead-zelensky-ukraine-off-a-cliff-with-pressure-to-reject-mineral-deal/

    The Donks set up Z to play let’s you and Trump fight, and he fell for their horse crap.

    prolonging and maybe escalating the war.

    Russia apparently just sank a Brit freighter full of ordinance at a Ukie port.

    I am really starting to appreciate Carrera’s approach to treachery.

    Like

    1. “Russia apparently just sank a Brit freighter full of ordinance at a Ukie port.“

      –

      Major oops.

      “The Donks set up Z to play let’s you and Trump fight, and he fell for their horse crap.prolonging and maybe escalating the war.”

      –

      Traitors.

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.