Author: haroldblackphd

Biden’s geriatric gaffes

Biden has made up fanciful tales his entire career which may explain why his initial presidential gaffes were ignored. But it soon became evident that these gaffes were something more. I do not understand why everyone is now blaming the White House and the media for covering up Biden’s lack of mental acuity. We should blame ourselves. We have all seen it from the first days of his presidency. We knew it existed despite the protestations from the left. Even when Robert Hur’s report was made in February 2024 saying that Biden was “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age,” the democrats kept making excuses. I guess they were hoping that telling us that what we were seeing was not what we were seeing would convince us that we were not seeing what we were seeing (Kamala Harris would be proud of that one!). They were lying. We knew they were lying. 

The New York Post says that Biden made 148 in 2024 alone. But Biden has made geriatric gaffes during his entire term. Here are only a few of them.

1. “Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.”
2. Reading the teleprompter instructions: “Four more years? Pause?”
3. In a speech at the White House, he asked “Where’s Jackie?” But Rep. Jackie Walorski was dead.
4. Kept going the wrong way off of stages
5. Kept calling Kamala Harris the president
6. Said that democrats campaigned in 54 states in 2018
7. Thanked at an Asian conference the Prime Minister of Columbia for hosting the conference when the host country was Cambodia
8. Called the Royal Air Force the RFA
9. Called the British prime minister Rashee Sanook (instead of Rishi Sunak)
10. Called the Congressional Hispanic Caucus the Congressional Black Caucus
11. Said that he had been to every mass shooting.
12. Said that he had commuted by train over the Francis Scott Key Bridge which doesn’t have train tracks.
13. Called Zelensky “President Putin”
14. Said “Look I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she were not qualified to be president.”
15. Forgot defense secretary Lloyd Austin’s name and called him “black man.”
16. Biden said he would beat Donald Trump again in 2020.
17. He said “We must be honest: The threat to democracy must be defended”
18. Announced at the NAACP convention that he is going to cap raises of rent to $55.
19. Said an uncle was eaten by cannibals during WWII.
20. He confused then British PM Theresa May with Margaret Thatcher
21. He said the democrats would take back the House of Representatives when they were already in the majority.
22.  Mistook a woman he took a picture with for Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC), who was not present at the time.
23. Confused French President Macron with former French President Mitterrand who died in 1996.
24. “When I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic. Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit, and help fix it!'”
25. Said on a Philadelphia radio station that he was proud to be the first black woman to serve with a black president. 

That people are finally conceding what Tom Cotton said that Biden is an “addled and demented old man” simply is amazing to me. What took so long? Of course, the upside of all this is that if he had been removed from office, then Kamala Harris would have been president.

Random thoughts

Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner, had a 4.0 GPA last semester at Colorado majoring in anthropology. His overall GPA is 3.75. He was named to the Academic All American squad and joins Tim Tebow as the only Heisman winners that are academic all Americans. Why isn’t this well known? One would think it would be headline news. But no there is more coverage on Hunter’s girlfriend than on his academic prowess. Hunter is from Swanee, GA.

Trudeau admonished Americans for having “voted for a second time not electing its first woman president.” So Canada must have had a lot of women prime ministers, right? No they have had only one. Kim Campbell was prime minister from June to November 1993. Earth to Trudeau: shut up.

Trump wants the debt ceiling raised. How does that square with the Department of Government Efficiency’s task of reducing spending?

Have you seen all the howling on the left about “President Musk”? I haven’t heard them complain about all the faceless “presidents” who have been running the country for the last four years.

Tom Cotton called Biden an “addled, demented old man.” Well that addled, demented old man is still in charge. That addled, demented old man just commuted over 1,500 sentences and took 37 prisoners off of death row in federal prisons. Who picked these folks for the “president” to commute? Surely not the addled, demented old man that is president. There has been an uproar mainly from the victims and their families and from the right. Most notably Josh Shapiro was critical of one release. I have heard nothing from Kamala Harris or Tim Walz or Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries. Also I have not seen criticism from CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Although there was much hue and cry over the commuting of the death sentences, two of the inmates have been on death row 31 years. Commuting their sentences from death to life in prison seems redundant. 

Trump wants to take back the Panama Canal. He says that Panama is ripping us off with the fees charged to go through the canal. Trump says we built it, we operated it and then Jimmy Carter gave it away. He wants it back. Of course the Panamanian president say “No way” and Trump responded “We’ll see about that!” Stay tuned. I’m waiting for Trump to slap a 25% tariff on the whopping $152 million in goods imported from Panama if they don’t give back the canal.

Trump has also wants to annex Greenland which is administered by Denmark. Greenland is closer to the United States than to Denmark but Alaska is closer to Siberia than it is to the lower 48. Does this mean we are to cede Alaska to Siberia? Greenland does have a US Air Force base but so does Germany. Maybe we ought to annex Germany. Obviously, guarding against an invasion, Denmark has responded by increasing the defense funding for Greenland. It added two more dog sled teams to their defenses. I am now waiting on a 25% tariff on Denmark’s exports to the United States. Carlsberg beer anyone?

Speaking of Panama, I was once at lunch with a friend who is a well known professor. He started talking fluent Spanish with the waiter and I asked him where did he learn his Spanish. He said that the relevant question was where did he learn his English. He had a fairly common American name but he said he was Panamanian! I thought he was from Chicago. Not a trace of a Spanish accent. It turns out that his grandfather went to work on the canal in 1906 and never returned to the states. There were thousands of other American blacks who went to Panama. Some returned while many stayed. The same is true for the 45,000 Barbadians who also arrived between 1904 -1916 to build the canal. My professor friend said that the Americans set up schools in which the instruction was in English, maintained their social clubs and churches. Who knew? So maybe Trump can seize the canal by invading Panama to unite the Panamanian brothers with their kin on the mainland. Isn’t that the excuse Putin gave to invade Ukraine?

Merry Christmas

When I was growing up Christmas was a really big deal. We knew it was coming when Dad gave us the Sears Roebuck catalog to pick out the clothes we wanted. On Thanksgiving night our family joined thousands of others to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree atop Rich’s Department store which marked the official start of the Christmas season. I remember Dad putting me on his shoulders so I could see above the crowd. We all then knew that it was time to light our tree. Dad loved Christmas. He loved to decorate. The exterior of the house would be lit. There would be Christmas candles in every window. There was a live tree on the screened in porch with presents underneath.  Mother used to joke that when the lights came on, it might cause a brown out in the city. But we weren’t the only ones. Every house in the neighborhood had lights and a tree.

On Christmas day all the kids would be outside playing. When we were small it was cowboys and Indians with our cowboy hats, chaps and cap guns. Later we put on our new metal fly-a-way skates. I think I was the only one who could not skate backwards. I remember waking up to new bicycles. They were identical except mine had a black seat and my brother’s seat was tan. We rode all around the neighborhood. It was obviously a neighborhood plan because I think every boy got a bike that year.

I think Christmas was especially overflowing for us because of our parents. My mother grew up on a farm and said that Christmas often meant a couple of small gifts with fresh fruit and nuts. She said that she knew it was not going to be much but she and her siblings couldn’t sleep the night before being excited about what the morning would bring. They were never disappointed. Dad grew up in the city with six brothers and sisters. If anything, his Christmas was even more meager than mother’s. But they had handcrafted decorations, went out into the woods and chopped down a small pine tree and hung cards, beads and crepe paper on it. Like Mother, they were to get small gifts, maybe a new shirt, or new pants but always a couple pieces of fresh fruit and some nuts. I can just imagine the sacrifice of my grandparents to give their children a joyous Christmas.

So when we were born, both Mom and Dad had good jobs. Dad was an elementary school principal and mom taught second grade. They were not extravagant but were generous. Our gifts were everything we asked for and a bit more. What was interesting is that neither my brother nor I asked for very much. Mom used to say “Don’t you like that shirt?”, trying to get us to say yes so she could get it for us. Ironically, my children were the same way with me trying to induce them to ask for more.

On Christmas Day, the men on our street would go from house to house to spread Christmas cheer. It would start at the first house on the street where the first man would go to the second house to have a small bite to eat and a sip of an adult beverage. Then the man from the second house and the one from the first house would go to the third house and do the same. It continued from house to house with the first person being dropped off when they all reached his house on the way back. It was a rowdy bunch but full of love and good cheer. Mother would hand out her homemade scuppernong wine – even though neither of my parents drank. But we still had fruit – usually Florida oranges -and nuts Christmas Day.

As we grew older my folks never lost the Christmas spirit. There were always decorations, always a live tree and always candles in every window. Dad still loved to decorate. Mother would prepare the same Christmas dinner, turkey, ham, potato salad, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato pie, green beans, mac and cheese and sweet tea. It was always her best meal served on the best china. When the grandchildren came, I always tried to be home in Atlanta for Christmas. Sometimes my brother would be there with his family. It was always a joyous occasion.

Now my parents are gone. My children are in other states. Their children are grown and there is even a great grandson. Rarely if ever are we able to be together physically at Christmas. Yes we talk, yes we still exchange presents, yes we love each other. But what is missing is the feeling of joy and gratitude emanating from our parents and our neighbors who marveled at their blessings on their rise from humble beginnings to one where Christmas finally meant sharing without sacrifice.

Merry Christmas all. 

The College Playoffs

The college football playoffs are here. I had three dogs in the hunt: Georgia, Ohio State and Tennessee. When Notre Dame completely outclassed Indiana, the grousing began. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffen tweeted disparaging comments about the inclusion of Indiana. Kiffen has always been insufferable. Earth to Lane: shut up. Yes you beat Georgia and play in the SEC but you lost to an awful Kentucky team at home no less. If you had beaten Florida in Gainesville you might have gotten in, but you lost. I have no problem with the inclusion of Indiana. They had a great season. I know some will point to no opponent being in the final top 25 but so what? They played in the Big 10. They beat every team by double digits except Michigan (which beat Ohio State in Columbus) and lost only to Ohio State. Indiana crushed Nebraska which barely lost to Ohio State. By those metrics, Indiana deserved to be in the playoffs. But speaking of insufferable, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is full of himself and whose pregame bravado was not backed up by his team.

The teams without ugly loses were Oregon (undefeated), Texas (which lost twice to Georgia), Georgia (which lost on the road to Alabama and Ole Miss), Penn State (Ohio State and Oregon) and Boise State (which lost to Oregon).  All the rest had ugly loses. Notre Dame had the ugliest lost (to Northern Illinois). My only gripe was the seeding. My beloved Bulldogs are seeded second even though they lost their starting quarterback. No way Boise State should be the number three seed and Arizona State the number four seed. I have no issue with guaranteeing a spot to the conference champions in the Power Four. I have an issue with guaranteeing them a bye. Why not pick the twelve and then seed them with the top four getting a bye. That way the byes this year would be Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Penn State. The first round games would be Clemson at Notre Dame, Arizona State at Ohio State, SMU at Tennessee and Boise State at Indiana.

The first round results showed dominance by the home teams. Indiana, SMU and Tennessee never had a chance. Clemson came from way down to almost getting within a touchdown of Texas but was thoroughly outplayed. Those detractors of the committee who argued against SMC and Indiana have egg on their faces unless they want to argue that Tennessee should not have been there either. Ohio State was completely dominant and beat the Vols by 25, and it wasn’t even that close. The problem goes back to the seeding. Now Oregon which is number one must face Ohio State. Georgia must play Notre Dame. Both will likely be underdogs. Yet lower seeds Texas and Penn State will be heavy favorites against the higher seeded but weaker Arizona State and Boise State. So expect Penn State and Texas to cruise into the semifinals with Texas hosting either Oregon or Ohio State (Go Bucks!) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Something needs to be changed. Penn State will play the winner of Notre Dame and Georgia (Go Dawgs!). I, of course, am hoping for an Ohio State – Georgia final in my hometown of Atlanta.

The Stupid Party Lives!

Once again the republicans have shown that it is easier to heard cats than to lead their House caucus. The first “continuing resolution” was 1,547 pages long and thankfully failed. Its only chance of passage was for some republican support and all the democrats in favor. This, mind you was from the republican leadership in the House. The MAGA House members said they would vote no. Then Elon Musk tweeted his displeasure soon followed by a message from Trump and Vance to kill the bill, Speaker Johnson withdrew it. Then Johnson submitted a slimmed down bill of 100 pages with Trump’s blessing. Since it stripped out some of the democrats’ goodies, the new CR would get no democrat support and not pass the House because of a technicality that it would need a two-thirds vote. Given the slim republican House majority the bill was destined to fail. But if the government shut down, the blame would fall on the democrats. But no! Instead of a unanimous vote for the CR from the republicans, 38 of them voted no, ensuring the defeat of the bill and showing the public that the republicans were incapable of governing. 

A major bone of contention was that Trump wanted an increase in the debt ceiling and the 38 dissidents wanted no increase in the debt ceiling and spending offsets instead. As Tom Massie said that instead of a CR that contained new provisions, he wanted four things: a vote on a clean CR, a vote on the debt limit, a vote on disaster relief and a separate vote on farm bailouts.

Again, regardless of the language the bill had no chance of getting two thirds of a vote. The insurgents were led by Chip Roy (no surprise) along with our Tim Burchett (again no surprise), Nancy Mace and Bob Good. Of course Good would probably never vote for anything that Trump endorsed since Trump led Good’s defeat because Good backed Ron DeSantis for president. It didn’t matter that Good was head of the Freedom Caucus. In a like manner, Trump has declared war on Chip Roy who agrees with Trump on every issue instead of raising the debt ceiling. Here is some of what Trump said:

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory – All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with.”

Weak and ineffective people like Chip have to be dismissed as being utterly unknowledgeable as to the ways of politics, and as to Making America Great Again. Put ‘America First,’ and go for the Victory, even if it means shutting the Government down for a period of time.”

“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent. By the way, how’s Bob Good doing? I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary. He won’t have a chance!”

So much for diplomacy. Trump demands that everyone agree with him on every issue and attacks those that do not. Roy, like Good, should be a valuable ally but instead Trump has made him an enemy. Chip Roy is not one to tuck tail and run.

Trump went after all the republicans who voted to impeach him and only one will return to the new Congress. The question is whether he will go after the 38 who voted against his CR? Can you imagine a candidate attacking Roy – or Burchett for that matter – for not raising the debt ceiling?

Finally, in their statements on the failure of the latest CR both Trump and Vance blamed only the democrats, failing to mention the 38 rouge republicans. Vance said “The Democrats just voted to shut down the government, even though we had a clean CR because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during his first term or during the first year of his new term.”

Earth to JD: What about those 38 republicans who are now more MAGA than you and more MAGA than Trump?

Idaho, Joni Ernst, the “CR” Mess

Idaho just banned DEI on its college campuses. Whoopi. The state is one percent black. I’m curious as to what the DEI initiatives were – move your campus to Mississippi?. Maybe they were to add diversity to the football and basketball teams.

Joni Ernst who heads the Senate’s committee on government efficiency has introduced a bill to move a third of the federal workers out of Washington. Do you think she read my blog piece “Drain the Swamp”? In fact her bill is entitled “Decentralizing and Re-organizing Agency Infrastructure Nationwide To Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Management Practices Act,” or DRAIN THE SWAMP. Cute.

I am not wise in the ways of Congress’ legislative morass but I would have thought that Mike Johnson would have run the bill intended to postpone the government shutdown by Donald Trump. Apparently, he didn’t since Trump demanded that the bill not be passed. Johnson withdrew it. 

I am also not up on the nomenclature of bills either. The Affordable Care Act isn’t. The Inflation Reduction Act isn’t either and neither was this Congress’ “Continuing Resolution.” I would think a continuing resolution would be just that, a continuation of a previous budget. In fact, the definition is “A continuing resolution continues the pre-existing appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year (or with minor modifications) for a set amount of time. Continuing resolutions typically provide funding at a rate or formula based on the previous year’s funding.^”

Therefore, a continuing resolution should be at most one paragraph long. So how did this “continuing resolution” get to be 1,547 pages? As Majorie Taylor-Greene said this wasn’t a CR it was an omnibus funding bill. Chip Roy was less diplomatic saying “We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich. Why? Because freaking Christmas is right around the corner. It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.” Another House member, Eric Burlison said “It’s a total dumpster fire. I think it’s garbage.”

Surely, Johnson knew that this “continuing resolution” was not going to get pass his conservatives members and had to know that he would get all the democrat votes and enough republican votes to pass. Even though Mike Lee and Rand Paul on the Senate side blasted the resolution it would have passed the Senate since the democrats are still in the majority. Speaking of the Senate, is Kamala Harris back presiding over the chamber?

Well Elon Musk immediately fired off a Tweet condemning the increase in spending and said that any member voting for the bill should be voted out in the next election. To which one democrat member told Musk to mind his own business. Then Trump and Vance issued a statement saying that the bill should be voted down. Mike Johnson withdrew it. Now a new bill has to be introduced 72 hours before it can be enacted. I thought the “shutdown” was supposed to occur at 12:01AM Saturday?

What a mess. Since Trump somehow lambasted the bill without criticizing Johnson, I would assume that Johnson’s status a majority leader is secure unless our Tim Burchett and his buds decide to stage another palace coup. Why didn’t Johnson introduce a clean CR? The House would pass it and the Senate would not. Then the government shutdown would fall on the democrats instead of the republicans. Apparently a clean CR would not have passed the House. Some republicans demanded that the CR be augmented to satisfy their constituents. Those from farm states wanted $10 billion for additional farm aid. Then there was $100 billion for hurricane and disaster relief. Moreover, two members demanded that ethanol be sold year round rather than banned in hot weather and on and on. Of course, the democrats wanted their goodies as well and the “continuing resolution” became anything but.

A friend of mine asked me if we were ever going to see the return of statesmen instead of what passes for politicians these days. I seriously doubt it because a statesman would have to consider the welfare of the country over his or her own personal welfare.

Some more Random Thoughts

Trump has nominated Kimberly Guilfoyle to be ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle was once married to Gavin Newsom and then was engaged to Don Jr. Some wags said that Trump nominated her to get her out of the country since Don Jr is now dating some Florida socialite. Guilfoyle was once a regular on The Five. She always sat on the end – in the seat now occupied by Judge Jeanine Piro – and wore very short dresses and low cut tops. I actually once wrote Fox asking if it was a company policy that all their women (except Dana Perino) were instructed to wear short dresses. Thankfully those days are over. But going back to Guilfoyle, I guess it wasn’t Fox’s dictates after all. Long after she left the network she was still obviously proud of her looks and proudly displayed them. I am sure she will do a great job as ambassador – whatever ambassadors do.

So now Trump has nominated four from Fox to positions in his administration: Pete Hegseth, Sean Duffy, Megyn Kelly and now Guilfoyle. I once jokingly asked if Trump was going to nominate Greg Gutfield. But on a serious note, a nomination of Harold Ford, Jr to one of the top cabinet positions would have been a home run.

Trump also nominated Herschel Walker to be ambassador to the Bahamas. Walker, who came back to graduate from the University of Georgia after being gone 42 years, is probably more fondly remembered for running over Tennessee’s Bill Bates than his run for the Senate in 2022.

Is a recession coming? Some of the women on the networks are now wearing long dresses. The so-called Hemline Index, attributed to Wharton economist George Taylor in 1926, states that the length of women’s dresses forecast changes in the economy. If times are going to be good, hemlines go up and if bad hemlines go down. There has actually been some serious econometric research on the issue with one study finding no predictive power in the length of women’s dresses. It looked at the correlation between hem length and the stock market. However, there was an indicator that fashion actually follows the economy with a lag. That is after good times come in, dresses get shorter and after bad times they get longer. So is this a chicken or the egg issue?

What’s up with all these pardons?

Will Biden pardon himself?

Will Biden pardon his brother? James Comer, chair of the House’s Oversight Committee is convinced that Hunter, Joe and brother Jim constitute a crime family. His committee is investigating the Bidens and with the pardon of Hunter for crimes real and imagined, Comer will probably go after Joe’s brother Jim. Comer has said “Joe Biden obstructed my and (Jim) Jordan’s investigations. He lied multiple times. He lied about his knowledge and involvement.” Stay tuned.

Apple is going to introduce a foldable iphone. Why don’t they just call it a flip phone?

France’s government has fallen after a no confidence vote. I thought that it meant that Macron was ousted but no, it was Macron’s prime minister Michel Barnier who only served three months must leave. Macron doesn’t have to stand for re-election until 2027. I am confused and don’t have the energy – or the interest – to try to figure out the French form of government.

Britain’s Liz Truss lasted only 44 days as prime minister and the country has had 30 governments since WW II.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has also lost a no confidence vote triggering early elections in February. Scholz actually called for the vote knowing that he would lose it. Go figure.

Both Germany and France have multiple parties and must cobble together coalitions to form a government. Those coalitions tend to be fragile giving rise to no confidence votes. The poster child for change in governments is Italy. Its prime minister is Giorgia Meloni heads the 68th government since World War II. That is a new prime minister and a new cabinet every 13 months! But Meloni has actually been prime minister since 2022 which must be a post-war record.

I have mused that it would be logical for the democrats to split into two parties, the progressives and the liberals. The republicans could also split into two, the MAGAs and the traditional conservatives. Then a newly elected president – from one of the four parties – would have to cobble together a coalition in both the House and the Senate in order to govern. Would this mean better or worse governance for the United States or just the chaos of European governments? Likely worse governance because the smaller more radical parties would have outsized influence – see the Greens of Germany or closer to home the eight disgruntled republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy.

Did you see where the North Koreans mistakenly killed Russian soldiers in the Ukraine’s Kursk region? I guess they all looked alike.

Caitlyn Clark’s “privilege”

I am not a basketball fan – not college or pro, not men’s or women’s (or is it now womyn’s?). But I saw that Caitlyn Clark won Time’s Athlete of the Year. I didn’t know Time had an Athlete of the Year Award. I knew it had a Man of the year (now Person of the Year) – likely that they will eliminate the “son” from “person” in the never ending quest for gender neutrality. But lo and behold, they have been making the athlete’s award since 2019. The previous winners are 2019 – United States Women’s National Team (soccer), 2020 – LeBron James, 2021 – Simone Biles, 2022 – Aaron Judge and 2023 – Lionel Messi. 

Clark felt it necessary to apologize for being white (and straight). She said “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that, the more we can elevate black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

What about other great white players like Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurausi and Breanna Stewart? I think Clark may be the only great white WNBA player other than Becky Hammon that did not go to UConn and I think that is part of Clark’s fame. If she had gone to UConn and was setting records, it would have been ho-hum. But because she was at Iowa and elevated that team to the NCAA finals was what was historic. I recall that the starting five on her Iowa team was all white. But that seems consistent with the composition of both the Iowa and Iowa State football teams. Yes there are a few black players on those squads but the majority of the players are white. Going from Iowa to the WNBA was likely a culture shock for Clark.

But Clark’s so-called “white privilege” doesn’t stem from Time Magazine’s award. It shows itself in the endorsements she has received in contrast to those of other (black) WNBA players. That Clark is perceived as more marketable than say Angel Reese is a reflection of who buys the tickets and who purchases the merchandise. But Clark is now in a league that is majority black and has to deal – perhaps for the first time in her life – with black players who may be jealous of her fame. But Clark does have game. She is very gifted and created excitement while in college and raised the profile of the women’s game. Recall after losing to South Carolina in the finals, Dawn Staley at the trophy ceremony praised Clark. If Clark were a very good player she would have not received such accolades. She reminds me of Pete Maravich. She also has the benefit of a photoshop make over by Time. Look at the cover and compare it with how Clark actually looks.

Sixty three percent of the WNBA players are black while 19 percent are white. In the NBA 70 percent of the players are black and 17 percent are white. Of course it seems that most of the white players in the NBA are from Eastern European countries with names that sound like two boxcars colliding. However, I don’t recall that Nikola Jokic who has won three out of the four past MVP awards in the NBA has apologized for his “white privilege”.  I do remember him saying of the 2023-24 award that it should have gone to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander instead. However, the voters disagreed giving the award to Jokic in a landslide 926 points to 640. Kendrick Perkins claimed it was because 80 percent of the MVP voters were white. Actually it is 63 percent and indeed, Jokic got 60 percent of the vote for MVP. Hmm.

Hear no drone, see no drone, speak no drone

I don’t think Trump likes Canada. It is true that prime minister Trudeau is a dumpster fire. Trudeau is a weak ineffectual leader whose unpopularity is likely to lead to a regime change in Canada. What he did to the truckers who protested his shutdowns during Covid was criminal. Trump is threatening Canada with 25% tariffs for lax enforcement of its borders allowing illegal entry and fentanyl. Yet neither is nowhere as serious as the southern border. I think Trump just likes being a bully. When he imposed tariffs in his first administration, Canada retaliated. It will retaliate this time as well. The government of Ontario has threatened to cut off the flow of oil into the states. Since 60 percent of the crude we import is from Canada, Trump will certainly take notice. I think this is called “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” – or something like that.

Now what about the drones? We can dismiss that the drones are a security risk because they are flying over New Jersey. What are they spying on? Commuters to New York? Commuters to Philly? Maybe it is Kansas State spying on Rutgers’ practices in preparation for the highly anticipated Rate Bowl in Phoenix. What is most disturbing is the total lack of information coming from the Biden Administration. Early on I had respect for John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. He is a retired navy admiral and seemed like a straight shooter. He was one of the few people in the administration willing to talk to Fox. Kirby unlike Karine Jean-Pierre seemed to be sincere and competent. But Kirby has lost all credibility in this dronegate. 

Kirby has said that the administration does not know what is going on with the drones but knows that they do not present a danger. He said “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.” What? How would they know that if they do not know anything about the drones? The “foreign nexus” was, I guess, in response to New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s remark that there was an Iranian mothership off the coast piloting the drones. I didn’t think Van Drew was serious – maybe he was thinking about the Led Zeppelin album of the same name –  but obviously the Pentagon thought him serious when they trotted out another spokesman to categorically deny the assertion. Kirby then said that many if not most of the sightings were of small piloted aircraft and not drones.  Kirby said “Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to, and neither have state or local law enforcement authorities, corroborate any of the reported visual sightings. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.” Again this comment was met with derision by New Jersey state and local officials who said that Kirby was calling all of them liars for saying that the sightings were off drones. Me thinks he thinks that we are all fools. Kirby is the one looking like a liar.

Trump of course had a very different response saying “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I (don’t) think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, (shoot) them down!” Leave it to Trump to say what is on the minds of the people not associated with the Biden Administration. What I don’t understand is why New Jersey is whining to the federal government. I bet that if the sightings were over Oak Ridge, that if the feds did not take action, the state would. If it happened in Georgia, we would call our wildlife rangers and say that hunters were using drones to spot deer. They would immediately shoot them down. So why does New Jersey keep whining? Is whining part of the democrats DNA? Why doesn’t it have its helicopters or planes follow the drones until they come down and confiscate one of them? Or, following Trump’s suggestion, have its air national guard just shoot one down? If it indeed is a civilian drone piloted by kids in their backyards, then we will know that they are not a threat. 

This is all too reminiscent of the stonewalling about the Chinese spy balloon. Remember when the first Biden spokeswoman, Jean Psaki, said that in contrast to the Trump administration that Biden’s administration would share “accurate information with the American people” and “bring transparency and truth back to the government to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear.” So where are the “truth and transparency” now, Jen?

Of course, there are two issues here. First, if the administration knows what is going on, then why don’t they tell us? Second, if the administration does not know what is going on, then we are all in deep do-do – at least until January 20,

The Department of Education, Jamaal Bowman and Elizabeth Warren

How do you stop the despicable treatment of Jews on some college campuses? How about the Department of Education cutting off all federal funds? That threat would get their attention. Just tell the schools to imagine that instead of Jewish students being targeted and harassed that LBGTQ students are the victims. I would bet that the protests will come to a screeching halt.

Although Trump has pledged to abolish the Department of Education, I don’t think he can do that without congressional approval. The department basically does two things. It funnels money from the federal coffers to the education establishment – something that can be done through block grants to the states. It also uses its civil rights division to cater to the woke leftists in its dictates on LGBTQ like changing the language in Title IX. Look for that to change. Trump’s education department could also take a crack at DEI. The accreditation agencies for the colleges and universities have included DEI in the accreditation process. Although the Department of Education has no sway of the accreditation agencies, they could determine that colleges’ DEI practices could violate the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action with its racial preferences and force the accreditation agencies to alter their criteria.

Again, show me where DEI lessens discrimination and bigotry. It doesn’t. Rather it fosters resentment, animosity and increased racial divisions. DEI has been nothing more than a honey pot for racial grifters. Universities and corporations are mostly run by white people who obviously must hate themselves or else they would not impose this nonsense on their students and/or employees.

Did you see the Jamaal Bowman quote after the Penny verdict?  Here it is:

“Dear White People, I don’t know why I feel the need to keep talking to you. I don’t know why part of me still has hope for you and for us. Some of you are too far gone. But maybe enough of you aren’t and will join us in fighting to end white supremacy.” So Bowman is asking white people to help him end white supremacy?

Penny, as you know, was acquitted for subduing a mentally challenged homeless subway rider that was terrorizing passengers. Bowman and his BLM cohorts are protesting this as a racial crime since Penny is white and Neely was black. I wonder if they would have the same outrage if the races were reversed. I doubt if Penny would have even been arrested in jurisdictions that do not have woke progressive DAs.

I am glad that Bowman lost his re-election bid and soon will be out of the Congress. He was an embarrassment.

Speaking of embarrassments, did you see what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders said about the murder of the United Healthcare CEO? Warren: “The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system.” Her comrade in arms Bernie Sanders echoed that sentiment by saying “I think what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry tells us is that millions of people understand that health care is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.”

To me this sounds like the two senators are excusing murder instead of criticizing the system they helped to create with Obamacare. I presume that they are talking about claims being rejected by private insurers. What about doctors dropping Medicare patients due to low reimbursement rates? Will they condemn the doctors or Medicare? Sanders and Warren know that under a single payer system – which they both so badly want to impose on us – care gets denied and there are long waiting lines for services. Who then would patients that are denied care shoot in that type of system? My mother had seven bypass surgery at 85. I remarked that if she were in Canada that they would have denied her the operation and she would have died rather than living to 101.

Contrast Warren’s and Sanders’ reaction to that of John Fetterman whom I am slowly warming up to. “The public execution of an innocent man and father of two is indefensible, not ‘inevitable.’ Condoning and cheering this on says more about YOU than the situation of health insurance.” Fetterman also said regarding the killer “He’s the a–hole that’s going to die in prison. Congratulations if you want to celebrate that. A sewer is going to sewer.” Some of the libs are now attacking Fetterman saying that he is going to flip to the republicans. Nonsense. Fetterman is still a progressive but perhaps a more moderate one.