Issues & Insights has a chart produced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing illegal border crossings since Trump first took office in 2017.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Data on Border Crossings
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
TDS Mimics Tourette's
Power Line's John Hinderaker drops a one-liner as he reacts to Dems' calling whatever the GOP does Nazi behavior.
Democrats don’t really mean the things they say; they just blurt them out like Tourette’s sufferers to relieve the pain they are suffering.
Truly, they do act quite deranged.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Questions for DOGE
I have questions, for which I think I have answers. As I'm no attorney I may be wrong.
My first question is this. Most illegal entrants are economic migrants. How is someone coming here illegally and being supported by my tax dollars different than someone stealing my property? In both cases, that individual is taking something that is mine - to which they have no right - because they want it, not because they've earned it.
And my second question. How is it that NGOs assisting illegal immigrants isn't them knowingly and intentionally aiding and abetting federal crime? What's worse, according to DOGE, many of these NGOs are funded at least in part with taxpayer dollars from our government.
Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. ICE is trying to keep illegals out while USAID and other fed-funded sources are paying NGOs to help them get here and stay in country illegally.
Why can't we prosecute NGO employees doing this aiding and abetting? How is this not a criminal conspiracy?
Trump Is No Anomaly
An article in Foreign Affairs notes two sequential trends since 1989. Hat tip to RealClearWorld for the link.
In the two decades that followed the Cold War’s end, globalism gained ground over nationalism. Simultaneously, the rise of increasingly complex systems and networks—institutional, financial, and technological—overshadowed the role of the individual in politics. But in the early 2010s, a profound shift began. By learning to harness the tools of this century, a cadre of charismatic figures revived the archetypes of the previous one: the strong leader, the great nation, the proud civilization.
The "strong leaders" referred to above are Russia's Putin, China's Xi, Turkey's Erdogan, India's Modi, and our Trump, all are nationalists. It is the zeitgeist. I'd add that in a minor way Argentina's Milei and El Salvador's Bukele are having success with the same playbook.
Trump and comparable tribunes of national greatness are now setting the global agenda. They are self-styled strongmen who place little stock in rules-based systems, alliances, or multinational forums.
In the process, all of these men are demonstrating that individuals can still make a difference in the fate of nations. Seen in this light, perhaps Trump is less of an anomaly than many here have believed.
In this era, the Davos World Economic Forum is a dinosaur en route to extinction. The United Nations is merely an excuse for third world elites to leave home and experience the pleasures and perils of first world life on an expense account.
Afterthought ... I suppose we should be glad the modern Germans haven't come up with their own charismatic leader. Their last one was a disaster for the world, whereas Merkel was merely a disaster for Germany.
A Legacy?
FL Gov. Ron DeSantis is termed-limited out in 2026. President Trump has endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) who has expressed interest in running to replace DeSantis.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has let friends know he hopes to convince his wife Casey to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor. Politico writes it believes Trump basically can give the nomination to Donalds.
I am less certain than Politico that Trump's endorsement makes Donalds a sure thing. DeSantis has developed a strong "brand" in Florida. The popularity of his governing is, I believe, somewhat independent of his voters' fondness for Trump.
In addition, I would not be surprised if the Bradley effect reared its head in Florida. Rep. Donalds is black, most GOP primary voters are not, and FL is a southern state, at least in part.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Weird Diagnostic Science
Instapundit links to a preliminary report of a study finding a highly suspicious link between Alzheimer's and the bacterium behind chronic periodontitis, Porphyromonas gingivalis.
In separate experiments with mice, oral infection with the pathogen led to brain colonization by the bacteria, together with increased production of amyloid beta (Aβ), the sticky proteins commonly associated with Alzheimer's.
P. gingivalis has been found in the brains of people who have died from AD. Presuming we know antibiotics which kill the gingivitis bacterium, physicians could begin off-label treatment "on spec" with people showing the early stages of AD.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
The Palestinian Problem
A scholar with a deep understanding of the feelings and needs of both sides lays out for RealClearPolitics why a settlement of the Palestinian question is unlikely. Azar Gat of Tel Aviv University argues that the Palestinians show no signs of giving up their demand for a "right of return" whereas the Israelis cannot grant that and survive.
If he is correct, Israel has only one option and that is some version of the present day Whack-a-Mole situation. In it, Israel lives continuously on guard alongside a hostile population and periodically has to pummel them back into a temporary quiescence.
People will continue to die on both sides. It is unlikely that the "Gaza Beach" developer's solution proposed by Trump will work.
Since neither side will give in and neither is willing to move elsewhere, it appears peace will only arrive hand in hand with genocide. Genocide is something of which Israel is "able but unwilling" to do; on the other hand the Palestinian Arabs are "willing but unable." So ... no peace in the foreseeable future.
What Do You Do Here?
Word on the street is that Musk/DOGE has today sent an email to all Federal employees requiring them to report what they got done last week, with up to five bullet points, copy to their supervisor. Supposedly anyone who does not respond by end-of-business Monday will have resigned.
Hard to know how this will affect someone on sick or annual leave, or on travel status. Wondering how an air traffic controller would answer, perhaps with five flights landed safely? I’m imagining some mid-level bureaucrat listing five meetings attended where he/she represented his/her unit on another interagency task force.
I know a woman who works for a county government who spends her day watching 30+ CCTV monitors in a courthouse/jail complex. Could she identify five key things she did, if it was a quiet week? Absent a jail break, riot, or VIP visit, likely not.
This is a creative writing assignment. I wonder how many will ask AI to concoct their responses? This will be an uneasy weekend for career Feds.
Wisdom
Instapundit reposts the comments of Aaron MacIntyre regarding the suboptimizing behavior of Europe in the 80 year post-war period. It is a concise statement of what hindsight shows has happened.
Europeans abandoned the defense necessary for their own sovereignty so they could finance welfare states, which they then destroyed with mass immigration.
So now they have infinite migrants, bankrupt social programs, and a complete lack of security.
Assessment: They find themselves near the headwaters of a polluted river with no means of propulsion. Meanwhile night is falling and the wolves gather.
Friday, February 21, 2025
Poll: Majority Favor 2 Sexes Policy
Fifty-seven percent of voters support President Trump's executive order recognizing only two sexes, male and female, in the United States, while 38 percent oppose it.
Republicans (96 - 4 percent) and independents (59 - 35 percent) support the order, while Democrats (77 - 14 percent) oppose the order.
Independents split 59% in favor, 35% opposed. And men support the policy 68%, oppose 27%; while women oppose it 50% vs. 45% in favor. Another example of "common sense" policy-making.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Time to Decide
Columnist Henry Olsen has written an appraisal of where US relations with the EU and Europe more broadly stand today. "Tough love from the US" would be a fair summary. He writes the following for the Brussels Signal:
Europe now knows where it stands. If it wants a relationship with America, it must have a relationship with all of America, not just the half that it prefers to invite to cocktail parties.
If it wants a seat at the table to form a united front with the United States even in its backyard, it needs to develop the hard military power that commands respect.
If it wants respect from Washington, it must show respect to Alabama, Kansas, and the places in flyover country that elect Republicans. And it must also show respect to their own citizens, often from their own rural and forgotten communities, who feel and vote the same way.
European elites may decide they don’t want a relationship on those terms. That’s certainly one option, and an understandable, if regrettable, one.
But then that’s their choice, not Trump’s. And they will then need to sleep in the bed they have made.
And alas, there is a fair chance they'll find themselves sharing that bed with a rapacious Russian while we get ready to face down China. Hat tip to Ed Driscoll, posting at Instapundit, for the link.
Class War
Ruy Teixeira has a new Liberal Patriot essay which suggests a test for all Democratic Party platform planks: WWWCS. What Would the Working Class Say? His key observation - our politics have become based on social class. It is a good read and some good graphics like the following.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Jonah Vindicated
The Biblical story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale has been eliciting eye-rolls among the skeptical since basically forever. Now at least we have evidence it could have actually happened, see video here.
Hats off to both Jonah and the intrepid kayaker in the video.
Cotton on China
Power Line’s John Hinderaker posts a quote from a new book by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who now chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Cotton (no relation) writes:
As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I’m often asked if the threat from China is as bad as it seems. My answer is no — it’s worse than you can imagine.
Which is to say, dire, unless the lingering effects of its “one child” policy cripple it from within, a real possibility.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Tough Love
Last week in Munich Vice President JD Vance told the other members of NATO the US "gravy train" was fast approaching the end of the line. He made clear that we weren't very impressed with their free-riding delegation of their defense to the US military. Canada is an especially egregious offender.
Trump isn't even slightly worried about hurting their feelings. Every president since Reagan has told them the same thing, but they seem to have heard it at long last.
This realism shock is long overdue. It is far from clear if the political will exists in the EU to enable them to step up their game and protect themselves.