JANUARY 23, 2026

“Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.  So . . . get on your way.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENAN! You are still a youngster.

The United States has established a Board of Peace, which will oversee the Gaza resolution, and seek to resolve other international issues. Twenty-two (22) countries have joined. Notably, Great Britain and other European countries did not, expressing concern that the Board of Peace could undermine the United Nations. Too late. The United Nations undermined itself years ago.

President Trump pointedly criticized Canada as “ungrateful”, due to Prime Minister Carney’s recent actions, and statements disparaging the United States. Mr. Trump has a point; the Canadians, like Europe, have been free riders under America’s security umbrella for decades. Canadians could not defend themselves against a band of angry Eskimos. But with the United States’ guarantee, they are safe to hurl insults and policy brickbats at us.

The House of Representatives voted to repeal a China Joe Administration regulation that locked up and prevented the development of rare earth minerals in Minnesota. At last, good news concerning Minnesota.

Virginia’s Governor, with the full backing of General Assembly Democrats, is rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gases Initiative. The compact among, largely Northeastern, States, claims to address “climate change”. What it does is mandate changes on everyday people’s lives, raising energy prices, and restricting choices. Another blow to Governor Spanberger’s “affordability” agenda.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are angry that The Virginia Military Institute eradicated DEI at the school. Stated differently, Democrats are angry that VMI is operating on the merit system, instead of a racial spoils system. So now General Assembly Democrats are threatening to cut off all funding to VMI. SHAME ON THE RACISTS IN RICHMOND!

Piling on, Delegate Michael Feggans (D. Va. Beach) introduced legislation to abolish VMI’s Board of Visitors, and place the Institute under the governance of Virginia State’s Board of Visitors. Good grief! Union General Philip Sheridan did less damage to VMI in 1864 when he set the school on fire.

VMI is not the only target of racial discrimination. Democrats have introduced a bill that discriminates against white men in government contracting.  For discretionary contracts under $100K, white men are barred from even being considered unless there’s literally no competition.  And even then, this bill allows agencies to award contracts to women or minority-owned firms that are 5% more expensive than a bid from a business owned by a white man. SHAME ON THE RACISTS IN RICHMOND!

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon quickly responded to the proposed bill, warning Virginia Democrats that it was unconstitutional, illegal, and would be challenged. And it is. Interestingly, it was in the case of City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson, that the United States Supreme Court ruled minority set aside contracts unconstitutional. But then again, Virginia Democrats never learn.

The Observations warned Virginia voters that Abigail Spanberger was no “moderate”, and that if Democrats captured control of the Commonwealth’s government, things would quickly go South. It gives us no pleasure to write, “we told you so”. Set forth are just a few of Democrat priorities for this year:

– New 4.3% sales tax on Uber Eats, Amazon, etc deliveries.

– New sales tax on admissions to a wide variety of businesses.

– Create two new higher tax brackets of 8% and 10% on people making over $600K.

– A new 10% tax bracket for anyone making over $1M.

– 3.8% investment tax on top of state income taxes.

– Raise the hotel tax.

– New personal property tax on landscaping equipment.

– Ban gas powered leaf blowers.

– Guarantee illegal aliens free education.

– Make it illegal to approach somebody at an abortion clinic.

– Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days

– Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.

– Expand ranked-choice voting.

– Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.

– Redact the addresses of political candidates from FOIAs.

– Add Virginia to the National Popular Vote Compact for presidential electors.

– Make it illegal to hand count ballots.

– $500 sales tax on firearm suppressors .

– “Assault weapons” and large capacity magazine ban.

– 11% sales tax on all firearms and ammunition.

– Prohibit outdoor shooting of a firearm on land less than 5 acres.

– Lower the criminal penalties for robbery.

– Ban the arrest of illegal aliens in courthouses.

– Remove mandatory minimum sentences.

– Allow localities to install speed cameras.

– Replace Columbus Day with “Indigenous Peoples Day”.

Most all, if not all, of this will be enacted into law. Who is going to stop it? Welcome to California East. Sigh. I miss Coonman.

Heck, I miss California. Better weather.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is looking to “decolonize” the study of medicine. What in the world does that mean?

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lansing, Michigan, parish leaders are recruiting and training young people to advocate against the right to keep and bear arms. Stated differently, the Church is recruiting and training young people to advocate against a God-given right. Not to personally decide not to exercise that God-given right, but to prevent others from exercising their God-given rights. It does not sound quite Christian to me.

Billie Eilish condemned President Trump’s immigration and environmental policies. Huh. Who is Billie Eilish?

Smithfield Foods acquired Nathan’s Famous hot dogs. Great. First the Chinese controlled our ham and bacon, and now they control our hot dogs!

Congratulations to H-E-B grocery stores! The San Antonio, Texas based chain was rated #1 in the United States, for the 5th time in the last 9 years.

Vernon Parker, master chef at The Hubbard Peanut Company of Sedley, Virginia, purveyors of the finest peanuts, has died at age 83. Mr. Parker was the company’s 1st employee, having worked there since he was a teenager. R. I. P.

Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at 70. R. I. P.

We conclude the work week by sharing the following article by historian, author, and Reaganite, Craig Shirley. For those of a certain age, this will cause some regret and pain. But it is important to know the facts, and be aware of what goes on in our broken society.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s hard left turn

Say it isn’t so, Ron

BY:          Craig Shirley The Washington Times (January 13, 2026).

In 1980, when George Bush won the Iowa caucuses and candidate Ronald Reagan was out of money and momentum, I was approached by the Fund for a Conservative Majority about running a high-dollar, independent expenditure to help boost Reagan in the next six primary states, starting with New Hampshire.

We helped Reagan turn around his campaign operations while Bush was well ahead in the polls. Reagan went on to win the Republican nomination, the election and historic recognition as one of America’s greatest presidents.

Forty-five years later, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute has gone the way of so many other formerly conservative institutions, such as the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund (now the Wallace Foundation), the MacArthur Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation. It has turned aggressively left, completely forgetting its reason for existence.

The foundation has thrown Reagan’s own conservatism onto the ash heap of history to embrace leftism and monied elitism and all they entail. Recent board member additions, for example, are wealthy donors and cronies who want their names on the foundation’s letterhead but have no association with Reagan, his legacy or conservatism.

Alia Tutor, the wife of a wealthy California construction executive, and John Momtazee, a media investment banker, have no relationship to conservative causes of any kind. Susan McCaw, Elaine Chao and Condoleezza Rice, all prominent figures in the neocon Bush 43 administration, have been added over the years.

Walter Benjamin was right when he said, “You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps.” The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum has censored most conservative books about Reagan from its online gift shop and disinvited conservative authors (me, for one) from its conferences while inviting myriad liberals who have no expertise on Reagan to appear at the library.

My six books on Reagan are now gone from the library’s site, including “Rendezvous With Destiny,” which was cited as one of the five finest campaign books ever by a Wall Street Journal columnist. So too are several of Kiron Skinner’s books and books by Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson, close aides to Reagan.

Also missing are significant books by Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman, Ken Khachigian (one of Reagan’s favorite speechwriters), Newt Gingrich, Art Laffer, Peter Schweizer and Peter Robinson, another Reagan speechwriter, as well as other conservatives.

Yet “The Triumph of Nancy Reagan” by ultraleftist Karen Tumulty is prominently displayed. A little-read and badly reviewed book by Trump hater Chris Christie is for sale.

I am especially disturbed by all this, as I am a longtime champion of Reagan’s legacy. My wife, Zorine, and I worked for Reagan. I wrote many op-eds, papers and books on him and his times. Over the years, the library has often called on me to defend Reagan’s reputation.

When Ronald Reagan Jr. wrote a half-baked, silly book about his father’s brain surgery, the library called me to mount a public campaign casting doubt on the book’s credibility. Yet that book is currently for sale at the library.

When a vial of Reagan’s blood was stolen during the 1981 failed assassination attempt, the library asked me to create a public pressure campaign to have the blood turned over to Mrs. Reagan, where it belonged. We were successful.

When Bill O’Reilly wrote his book about Reagan having Alzheimer’s symptoms during his presidency, the library called to ask that I again mount a public campaign, this time to undermine the credibility of the book. We were wildly successful. With several historians, we wrote op-eds disproving Mr. O’Reilly’s controversial accusations while persuading George F. Will to appear on Mr. O’Reilly’s show to dispute the claims.

When would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. was released, the library asked me to again write and make media appearances ripping Mr. Hinckley and the Clinton-appointed judge who set him free. I did. I also facilitated the donation of a Reagan staff assistant’s diary that documented the president’s time in the hospital after that attempt. It’s still on display at the library.

When the library needed to boost its campaign memorabilia displays, I gladly lent items. I also donated a large number of copies of my book “The Search for Reagan” and research materials.

In my book “Last Act,” I defend Reagan’s legacy against the lie that he had Alzheimer’s while in office. No one tells this lie anymore. I received many letters from Nancy Reagan over the years thanking me.

I have spoken many times at the Reagan library, but those days are now, sadly, over. This summer, when the library hosted a conference on the “Age of Reagan,” I called to offer my services, thinking the library had failed to invite me. An intern informed me that, although I was welcome to sit in the audience, I wasn’t needed for any panel because I was “too old.” At the time, I was a year younger than Reagan when he ran for president in 1980. Ageism is not very politically correct.

Apparently, the library was embarrassed by the whole affair, as a list of the participants is no longer available on the website. Still, the panels were loaded with liberal academic types.

I was proud and happy to do all this for the library, and I never thought about charging a dime. None of those now sanitizing and cleansing the place of Reaganism would have a job without my efforts in 1980. They might now be working as greeters at Walmart.

This is all doubly ironic to me, as Reagan dedicated his life to promoting conservatism and defeating collectivism — a labor of love. As he once said, “The conservative movement believes that government is not the solution to our problems.” The modern iteration of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute is not the solution either.

The final irony? President Trump is carrying on the Reagan agenda far better than the foundation named in honor of Reagan.

GFK