“Some people talk to animals.  Not many listen though.  That’s the problem.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

English finally returned home after enjoying a fine visit with Gram and Rufe. Dudley is happy. I am happy. All is right with the world again.

It is funny. When I was single, and living in Washington, D.C., I was constantly around other people. I yearned for time by myself. Silence was treasured, I enjoyed long walks around Old Town Alexandria with only my basset hound, Buckley, as a companion. On the rare occasion that I was not at the office or at a party, I would sit in my library, alone, with a cigar and a drink, reading Churchill.

But nowadays, I cannot stand to be alone without the ability to speak and be with English. It’s bad enough that Holland is always gone, and has been for about 9 years. But I have accepted that fact. But when English is gone, the house seems empty, the office is depressing, and it is not as much fun to run Saturday errands alone. People look at me with pity, sitting alone in the back of Church on Sunday. Dinner alone is damn sad. Sigh. I think that I will have to ban English from all future travel. Dudley and I cannot manage without her.

Senators Alex Padilla (D. Ca.) and Adam Schiff (D. Ca.) are outraged–OUTRAGED–that the Interior Department is charging non-citizens more to obtain an annual national parks pass, than it does American citizens. HOW DARE THE U.S. GOVERNMENT GIVE PREFERNCE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS!

“I’ve not heard one Democrat say defund ICE.”

–Senator Patty Murray (D. Wa.).

Really? This woman is literally participating in a months long filibuster to prevent ICE funding. C’mon, man! These Democrats are not serious people.

“The so-called indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center announced by Todd Blanche and Kash Patel is baseless and illegitimate.  These partisan hacks who continue to weaponize the criminal justice system against perceived opponents will never intimidate.  And all of them will be held accountable for their corrupt behavior no matter what it takes.”

–Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.).

Mr. Jeffries is outraged that the Justice Department would dare enforce the law against his friends. He is promising that when the Democrats regain power, they will seek retribution by breaking the law in order to punish his political opponents.

“Now in other times, Democrats and Republicans alike would rely on the Southern Poverty Law Center to help us keep track of the movements of violent white supremacy in the country.  The Southern Poverty Law Center’s been a vigilant voice in civil society against radical white nationalist violence and extremism, neonazism, and other forces across the political spectrum that spread organized hate from any quarter.  The President, however, wants to undermine civil society organizations and reduce our ability to defend ourselves against the virus of racial violence.”

–Representative Jamie Raskin (D. Md.).

Yes, yes, yes. We need to defend ourselves against “racial violence”, paid for by funds from the Southern Poverty Legal Center.

There are more fans at the average WNBA basketball game than there are members of the Ku Klux Klan throughout the United States. Think about that.

“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”

–Cole Allen, would be assassin of President Donald Trump.

Where did Allen get such ideas about Trump and the need to remove him, via murder? Almost certainly from the left, including from Democrats in positions of power.

Indeed, the Democrat Left’s reaction to the attempted assassination of President Trump has been, as might be expected, unhinged. When asked if Democrat rhetoric might have contributed to the tensions that led to another attempted assassination of President Trump, Representative Raskin responded, “What rhetoric?” Well, let’s see . . .

Former John McCain presidential campaign advisor Steve Schmidt blamed President Trump for the assassination attempt, calling him a “vile and disgusting man”. Before the assassination attempt, Jimmy Kimmel made a tasteless comment, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.) called for “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.” Former U.S. Representative Joe Walsh (R. Il.) said “It’s wrong, but not at all surprising, that someone would try to commit an act of violence against this President. Donald Trump is a cruel, hateful, divisive person, with the world’s biggest microphone, who incites violence against people every single day. He lives off of hate & division. Every day, Trump lights a match and spreads hate. So it’s not surprising someone would try to commit violence against him. It’s wrong, but not surprising.” And this is on top of years of calling President Trump a “racist”, “dictator”, “pedophile”, “rapist”, “warmonger”, “threat to our democracy”, “literally Hitler”, “authoritarian”, etc. etc.

Some Leftists even accused The White House of staging the assassination attempt, calling it a “false flag operation”. Others suggested that this was an attempt to force upon the American people Mr. Trump’s “one big beautiful ballroom”.

Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong (D.) said that the attempted assassination of President Trump should not be a surprise, because he had it coming. Oh, yes! Orange Man Bad!

Wisconsin Democrat donor and bar owner Kirk Bangstad is promising a day of free beer to celebrate the successful assassination of President Trump. Unbelievable!

Readers should remember that a couple of years ago, there was much uproar over Loudoun County, Virgina’s public schools administration’s handling of a “trans” student, who raped 1 female student at his high school, and his “punishment” was to transfer the “trans” student to a different high school. Where he promptly repeated his behavior.

“Trans” is “normal” was the claim of the Loudoun County public schools. “We cannot discriminate” claimed administrators. And then gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger (D.) refused to condemn Loudoun County public school administrators. Indeed, Mrs. Spanberger refused to take any stance at all, insisting that dealing with these issues were better handled at the local level. Hmmm.

Apparently not. At yet another Loudoun County, Virginia high school, a “trans” substitute teacher was arrested for plotting a mass murder at the school, where he/she often taught. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department was able to prevent the tragedy after being tipped off to online postings by the “trans” substitute teacher. He was so stupid as to actually brag about the details of his plans in public. Oh, my!

But still, no word from now Governor Spanberger. Not a word. Loudoun County (and Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William) have shown that they cannot handle these matters at the local level. This tragedy was barely averted, no thanks to Governor Spanberger. Will we be so lucky next time?

Readers may I ask if I am blaming the “trans community” for this violence. Yes I am. But is that not painting with a broad brush, condemning some for the actions of others? Nope. As I have often written, if you are a man, who thinks he is a woman, and vice-versa, or if you are a man who thinks he can become a woman, and vice-versa, you are insane. Why are we allowing insane people to wander around without restriction in society? Why are we hiring insane people to teach children in our public schools? Why are we enabling insane people, affirming to them their insanity? Sigh. Maybe the “trans” are not the only insane ones. Maybe their enablers are also.

Sixty percent (60%) of all illegal aliens present in the United States live in Democrat controlled urban areas. What does that tell you? Hmmmm.

This week the PGA TOUR returns to Doral for the Cadillac Championship. The tournament will be played on Doral’s famed Blue Monster course. And the Left is outraged! You see, the perpetually aggrieved do not play golf, or actually follow sports, particularly golf. But President Trump owns the Doral resort, and someone on the Left just figured that out. So . . . Orange Man Bad.

Vanderbilt University quarterback Diego Pavia went undrafted during the recent NFL draft. The Heisman Trophy runner up was snubbed by all 32 NFL teams. Multiple times.

Readers may remember that Diego Pavia reacted poorly to failing to actually win the Heisman Trophy, publicly telling Heisman voters to “f**k off”. Maybe that behavior had something to do with his being passed over by the NFL. Maybe.

Former Idaho Governor and United States Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has died at age 74. R. I. P.

Nedra Talley Ross, last surviving member of The Ronettes, has died at age 80. R. I. P.

Former Washington Redskins linebacker Monte Coleman has died at age 68. R. I. P.

GFK

I was enjoying a quiet Saturday evening, smoking a cigar, sipping Scotch, and then some Democrat jackball decides to attempt to assassinate the President, who was attending The White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel. That is 3 times in just a little over 2 years.

The would be assassin is a public school teacher from Los Angeles. He is a Kamala supporter. And he had no real plan. Carrying multiple firearms, he charged the ballroom entrance, was confronted by a uniformed Secret Service officer, and shot him. He was immediately set upon by other officers, and arrested.

Shortly after the shooting incident, some journalists took to social media, and speculated that they–not the President–were the targets of the would be assassin. Oh, please! No one knows who you are. And if they did, they would not care. You are not that important.

Leftists immediately flooded social media, lamenting that the would be assassin failed to murder President Trump. Can you imagine being such a miserable person that you wished for another’s death? How awful!

Does anyone else notice that Leftists want to confiscate all guns? That is, all guns but those they have, and with which they wish to murder their political opponents.

Some time ago, English bought Dudley a toy hippopotamus. It is adorable, purple, and makes a grunting sound when squeezed. English assumed that Dudley would like the hippo, because he has many toy animals, all of which he plays with, and loves. But he hates the hippo. HATES IT! I do not understand. I think that the hippo is great. Sometimes I play with the hippo. It is a very cool hippopotamus.

Reflecting again on the direction that the Commonwealth of Virginia is headed, Robert, Will, Jason, and I have discussed many options, including the secession of Southside Virginia from the rest of the Commonwealth. Most recently, we are considering purchasing a compound in South Carolina. It would be large, conducive to socializing, and, importantly, walled off to keep those other than family and invited guests out. It might be an option. Will has already volunteered to manage “Pizza Night” (Sundays).

But maybe Texas would be a better choice. It would be further away. But land may be cheaper and more available. Since before its breakaway from Mexico, Virginians migrated to Texas in search of new opportunities. Indeed, the Texas Republic was founded by Virginians.

Of course, none of these things may come to pass. Because while we ponder and wonder, 4 important people–Angie, Susan, Kate, and English–have not signed off on any such plans. Sigh. Maybe it is just as well. If we move, it will be a longer drive to the Elmwood Bar, and the 1st tee, at Chatmoss.

Actually, it may not matter whether we move or not. According to The New York Times, the world will end in 2085, the result of “climate change”. Stop me if you have heard this before. Say in 2000, 2010, 2020, etc.

The European Union is already preparing to combat “climate change”, by mandating that employees work 1 day per week from home. Labor unions are already preparing to strike over the increased work requirements. The European Union also wants more windmills and solar farms built, because last Winter was not cold enough for their citizens.

But more can be done. Perhaps Al Gore will make another movie about global warming. Greta Thunberg can organize another flotilla to cross the North Atlantic ocean. And perhaps we should eliminate, not just styrofoam cups, but all disposable cups. People can just drink their coffee directly from the 7-11’s coffee dispensers.

In 2085, I shall be 125 years old. English will still be making my martinis. Our grandchildren will be bringing Holland over for visits. Life will still be grand. I see no reason to worry about it.

The United States Immigration Court of Appeals has ruled that President Obama’s [lawless] DACA protections no longer act to prevent deportations of illegal aliens. WINNING!

The United States Department of Justice dropped its investigation into Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell. Okay. So, Senator [Thom] Tillis (R. N.C.), on what basis will you obstruct the President’s nomination of Kevin Warsh now?

“The time for free riding is over.  America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal, and who understand that being an ally is not a one way street.  We barely use the Strait of Hormuz as a country.  Our energy doesn’t flow through there, and we have plenty of energy.  We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do, and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and getting a boat.”

–Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Puddin’head is back in the news. She accused President Trump of being a misogynist because he only fires women from his Administration. Hmmm. Did Puddin’head ever consider that the only reason women have been fired from the Trump Administration is that they were hired in the 1st place?

“Representative McBride does not know what a woman is”.

–Trump Administration spokesman Taylor Rogers.

Representative Tim McBride (D. De.), who goes by “Sarah”, as he thinks he is a she, piled on, stating that he/she was personally offended as a “woman” that President Trump had only fired women. No, he is not. Because Representative McBride is not a woman. Representative McBride is a man in a dress.

Also, last time I checked, Navy Secretary Phelan was fired. He is a man.

“The law is with us in Virginia.  The facts are with us in Virginia, and the people are with us in Virginia.  There’s no basis in law or fact for the Virginia Supreme Court under the Constitution that exists, particularly in the aftermath of a people-approved referendum to allow it to move forward.”

–Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.), demonstrating his absolute ignorance of Virginia law.  Maybe he should read Virginia’s Constitution.  Maybe he should read Virginia’s statutes.  Maybe he should read the well-reasoned opinions of the Tazewell County Circuit Court.

Perhaps Mr. Jeffries has forgotten that Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 8, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And after they did, the Democrats went to court anyway, to get the matter overturned, and thwarting the electorate’s will. And the courts obliged. OH, but that is different. No it is not.

“If I were a gambling man, I’d bet on it.”

–Former Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli (R.), opining on whether the Supreme Court of Virginia will vacate the April 21 redistricting referendum.

If I were a gambling man, I would bet on Ken Cuccinelli’s opinion over that of Hakeem Jeffries.  Because Ken Cuccinelli actually understands Virginia law.

Senator John Kennedy (R. La.) tried to insert provisions of the SAVE AMERICA Act into the pending reconciliation resolution. The Act will safeguard federal elections, requiring proof of citizenship, as well as Voter ID. It is pure common sense. But 4 Republican Senators voted against Senator Kennedy’s efforts, dooming the amendment. Thank you Senators Lisa Murkowski (R. Ak.), Susan Collins (R. Me.), Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.), and Thom Tillis (R. N.C.). The Stupid Party Lives!

The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that President Trump’s declaration of an emergency at the U.S./Mexico border was “illegal”. Goodness, what would constitute an emergency, if not what confronted Mr. Trump in 2024? And since when does the Court get to second guess the President’s determination?

Virginia State Senator Lamont Bagby (D. Richmond) insists he knows and understands the needs of rural voters, even though he resides in the City of Richmond, and represents that area. How so? Senator Bagby assures all that he “grew up with Opie [from The Andy Griffith Show]”. He also watched television shows such as The Dukes of Hazzard and The Waltons. Huh. So, by Senator Bagby’s logic, I am qualified to be head of the NAACP, because as a child I watched Sanford and Son. 

“The State of Maryland has one of the worst outward migration numbers of any state in the country right now.  So, I don’t know who’s going to be the last to foot the bill for the profligate spending that Annapolis likes to engage in, but it’s not going to be me, I can tell you that.”

–Carroll County, Maryland State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker.

Outraged parents attended a public School Board meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The parents were there to protest the inclusion of a book in an elementary school library that had pictures of 2 men, dressed in BDSM attire, holding hands and kissing. Superintendent Rodney Trice responded by stating that he saw nothing wrong with the book, and that it merely depicted a couple “in love”, and was perfectly normal and suitable for small children. Uh, no. No it is not. Hell, it is not perfectly normal and suitable for adults.

California ranks 49th in the quality of its roads. Given the high amount of transportation related taxes, the poor quality of California roads is unfathomable. And it will only get worse, as Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) wants to divert a large chunk of those transportation related tax dollars is diverted to subsidize companies promising to develop “green” jet fuel. Another government boondoggle, designed to fail, and screw the taxpayers.

At a recent California gubernatorial debate, the moderators asked the candidates if they supported requiring holders of Commercial Drivers Licenses to be able to read and understand the English language. EVERY DEMOCRAT candidate responded that they did not support such a requirement, because it is “racist”. Oh, my goodness!

“That there is someone to support us in the future, delivering our message to the international community, and amplifying our call to liberate Palestinian prisoners, as well as to liberate all societies from servitude and from bigotry, which produces populations complicit in perpetrating inhumane laws.”

–Israa Jaabis.

Israa Jaabis is a failed “Palestinian” suicide bomber. She was released from an Israeli prison in exchange for the release of innocent civilian hostages seized by Hamas in October 2023. Last week she spoke to an audience of law students at the University of California (Berkeley), and was received by loud, raucous applause. The law students praised her as a “prisoner of conscience”. Sigh. Words fail me. Just unbelievable.

Daniel Lee Smith is serving a much too short a prison sentence for murder, having been convicted in Oregon. While incarcerated, Mr. Smith deemed himself to be a woman, and changed his name to Zera Lola Zombie. And now Mr. Smith has received a large settlement–$295,000.00–from the Oregon Department of Corrections, based upon allegations of “abuse”. What was the “abuse”? The Oregon Department of Corrections house him in a men’s prison. Because no matter what Daniel Smith thinks, he is a man. Gosh, Oregon’s State government is populated by morons.

Illegal aliens and [legally] visiting aliens now account for almost 10% of U.S. births. This is not sustainable. It is national suicide.

ARC Burger, LLC, one of the nation’s largest franchisees of Hardee’s restaurants, is in bankruptcy, and will begin liquidation. ARC Burger will close 77 Hardee’s locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Wyoming. The proceeds from the liquidation will be distributed to creditors. That is a real shame. Can you imagine not being able to pick up a Hardee’s biscuit sandwich for breakfast?

Former Minnesota Viking defensive lineman Doug Martin has died at age 68. R. I. P.

GFK

Similar to the Gospels of Advent that prepare us for the Incarnation of Our Lord, the Gospels for the next four Sundays prepare us for Whitsunday, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. They are taken from Our Lord’s Discourse at the Last Supper as recorded by S. John.

We might recall certain themes that run through this discourse given on the night Our Lord instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood; a certain sadness mingled with the promise of joy to come, the expression of farewells followed by the assurance of a future reunion. Our Lord’s teaching is pointing to that time the Apostles would assume His own mission but empowered with the Holy Ghost. 

The Epistle for this Sunday (from S. Peter’s first General Epistle) reminds us that we are “strangers and pilgrims” in this part of life as we journey to the heavenly kingdom. As such, our citizenship resides in the Kingdom of God and we are to live as such. When we travel to foreign countries, we always represent to some degree the United States of America. We may be not be always conscious of the fact, but we are ambassadors of the values and the principles associated with America. The concept of the “ugly American” suggests there are too often occasions when we do not put our best foot forward in a foreign land. And too often we as Christians do not represent the values and principles articulate by Our Lord, for example in His Sermon on the Mount.

Firstly, S. Peter exhorts us to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” There is a battle raging over our soul and we cannot remain passive. We are to actively fight against the vices that rise so easily from our baser passions and we are to work towards growth in the virtues, both cardinal (prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice) and theological (faith, hope, and charity).  

Secondly, we are to “submit [y]ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.” That is, we are to embrace an attitude of loyalty to the established public authority (recognizing at the same time that we have a greater loyalty to the authority of God’s Word, especially as articulated in the Church’s teaching – witness the current conflict between the teachings of the Church on contraception and the courts in New York State). We are not to misuse the freedom given to us in Christ, as this may become an occasion of scandal to those critical to Christianity. The point S. Peter makes is that by becoming a “slave of God” we are freed from becoming enslaved to sinful behavior, and this is to be reflected in our daily life as being “in the world but not of the world.”  

Thirdly, we are to “honor all men.” We are to understand that every person bears the dignity of being created in the Imago Dei. This is not always an easy task to fulfill but we have only to look at the example of Our Blessed Lord in this regard!

Whether we are aware of it or not, people are silently critiquing Christians, seeing if we live up to what we profess. During this Easter season, we celebrate in particular Our Lord’s victory over sin and death. As we seek to live out our Christianity with consistency and integrity, we should also exhibit the joy of this victory in our lives. S. Peter reminds us of basic principles that will aid us in our vocation to be “witnesses of the Resurrection.” May we incorporate these into our lives and become more like the One we profess to follow.

____________________________________________________________________

The Gospel According to Democrats

BY:          Amy Curtis

I was told that James Talarico, the pro-gay marriage, trans-kid-loving, pro-abortion Democrat “reverend” running for the Senate in Texas, was the ideal example of Christianity.

Never mind the fact that Talarico thinks Mary’s Immaculate Conception is proof the Bible is “pro-choice,” and ignore the fact that Talarico wants an abortion clinic on every parcel of federal land, or that a massive welfare state is how Jesus will judge us.

He opposes Donald Trump and, for some, that’s enough (looking at you, David French). 

But not content to have already politicized the Bible, Democrat activist and UCC Bishop Yvette Flunder has decided that the New Testament — the summation of the Christian faith — isn’t really the word of God.

They are proposing a new New Testament, the Third Testament, that does away with all that Christian stuff they call “problematic” and “bad theology.”

“This is a very dangerous thing that I’m about to say now but since I … I’m of the opinion that we need a Third Testament,” Flunder said. “Because the Bible has become problematic. ‘Slaves, obey your masters, as you do the Lord.’ It’s a text. ‘Let the women keep silent in the churches and if they have any questions, let them ask their husbands at home.’ I’m a believer. My whole heart, I trust God with my whole heart.”

No, you don’t. Not if you don’t believe the Bible is the complete and inerrant word of God.

Earlier, I told you how Hakeem Jeffries used 2 Corinthians as the basis for disenfranchising millions of Virginia voters, equating it to the struggles of the Apostle Paul’s persecution.

And Cory Booker gave a sermon-like speech at the Michigan Democratic Convention.

At the same time, Democrats acted very indignant and offended on behalf of Catholics after President Trump had some harsh, but accurate, words for Pope Leo and the Bishops. They can stuff that indignation where the sun doesn’t shine, because Democrats are the same people who spent a decade dragging the Little Sisters of the Poor through the courts in an effort to force them to pay for birth control and are about to do the same to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in New York, who tried to break the Seal of the Confessional in Washington, and who weaponized the DOJ against pro-life Catholics in an effort to throw them in prison for years under the FACE Act.

To Democrats, everything is political. Even the Bible. Because politics is their religion. Unlike Christianity, however, there is no grace or forgiveness. Sin is determined not by your behavior, but by your skin color and your gender, and you are never able to absolve yourself of those immutable traits. The sins of your forebears are an eternal albatross around your neck. Failing to obey the Left’s ever-changing commandments (“Thou shall not use the wrong pronouns!” “Thou shall not have any other god than the State!”) is grounds for lifelong persecution and atonement.

It’s the modern-day version of public flogging.

And that’s why not a single Democrat, who believed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s tattoos were a symbol of impending Christian nationalism, doesn’t utter a word about the separation of church and state when it’s progressives like Talarico or Flunder advocating for a Leftist version of Christian nationalism. It’s also why none of them call for a revision of the Quran, which has far more problematic verses and ones the adherents of Islam live out on a daily basis.

That, of course, is (D)ifferent.

____________________________________________________________________

Woke right as clueless about Bible as woke left

Claims of hatred in Deuteronomy fail as Christ’s words reinforce its truth

BY:          Everett Piper, The Washington Times (April 19, 2026).

Last week in this column, I criticized Tucker Carlson for his recent comments about the biblical Book of Esther. 

More specifically, I challenged his shocking ignorance of and seeming knee-jerk disregard for the Old Testament.  In conclusion, I suggested that Mr. Carlson’s constant twisting and manipulation of Scripture is evidence of either terrible confusion or intentional deceit and that people would be wise to stop listening to his antisemitic/pro-Islamic tropes.

In response to all this, one of my woke-right critics took me to task and claimed that my defense of the Old Testament was evidence of an affinity for the “raw hatred” embodied in the book of Deuteronomy as opposed to the teachings of Jesus.

Perhaps you will find my rejoinder interesting and, hopefully, instructional. Here are my challenger’s exact words along with my subsequent response.

Critic: “You know, and I know that the raw hatred embodied in Deuteronomy is diametrically opposed to the message of Christ, yet you prefer the former. Why is that?”

My response: By “raw hatred,” what do you mean?

Perhaps you mean the “raw hatred” that Jesus quoted no less than three times in his battle against Satan’s temptations in the wilderness? You know, when he responded to the Devil’s schemes by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3), and “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test (Deuteronomy 6:16), and “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve (Deuteronomy 6:13).

Or maybe you mean the “raw hatred” of Christ, when he quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and said, “The greatest commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” and then concluded by adding Leviticus 19:18, “and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Or maybe you mean the “raw hatred” of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus preached against adultery (Deuteronomy 5:18), murder (Deuteronomy 11:17), as well as lying and breaking your word (Deuteronomy 23:21).

Is this the “raw hatred” you’re talking about?

Or maybe you mean the “raw hatred” of our Founding Fathers — you know, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, who quoted the book of Deuteronomy more than they referenced Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Plato, Cicero and Montesquieu combined.

Is this what you mean by “raw hatred?”

Or maybe it was the “raw hatred” of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale, who in 1760 urged all Americans to find inspiration and courage in the story of Deuteronomy 26:6-9, where “The Lord freed us from Egypt by a might hand, by an outstretched arm and by awesome power and by signs and portents, he brought us to this place and gave us this land.”

Perhaps it’s the “raw hatred” of Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard, who in 1775 said America should adopt the form of government that God handed down to Moses on Sinai and recorded in Deuteronomy because “the Jewish government was a perfect republic.”

Or maybe it was the “raw hatred” of Thomas Paine, who many argue was the most nonreligious of all the Founding Fathers yet used the Old Testament examples of David, Samuel and Gideon repeatedly in his book “Common Sense” to condemn the “hardened and sullen temper” of “Pharaoh,” (i.e., King George) and the usurpation of human freedom.

Maybe it was the “raw hatred” of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who implicitly referenced Deuteronomy as he famously shouted, “Let freedom ring!”

Are all these examples of “the raw hatred embodied in Deuteronomy” that you contend is so “diametrically opposed to the message of Christ?”

If you still think so, may I suggest you do a little more reading? I’d recommend you start with the Gospel of Matthew, 5:18.

“I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” ~ Jesus (also known as the Second Person of the Triune God, and therefore just as much the author and inspiration of Deuteronomy and all the Old Testament as he is the New).

GFK

Democrats want to “stop Trump” in order to “save our democracy”. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A DEMOCRACY! NO STATE IN THE UNION IS A DEMOCRACY!

Oh, for goodness sakes, you are just playing semantics! No. No, I am not. The Founding Fathers hated democracy. They purposefully set up a constitutional republic. They purposefully set up a system that was diffused in authority, and with limited power.

BUT, BUT we need to get things done! Nothing is getting done in Washington! That is not a bug in the system. That is the system. The Founding Fathers recognized that government was a necessary evil. Men are not angels, so government is necessary. But the concentration of such power, backed up with force (i.e. guns), trended to evil. Trended to authoritarianism. Trended to tyranny. Which is exactly what the American Revolution was fought to abolish.

But why . . . WHY . . . should a minority thwart the wishes of the majority? That is so undemocratic! Should not the majority rule? Sigh. No. Our Constitution is designed to protect minority rights. Our Constitution is designed to thwart the passions of the present majority, and force reasoned debate, compromise, and the delay of hasty actions.

Democracy has been defined as 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting on dinner’s menu. We should not want that. Because we are the sheep.

Currently, Virginia Democrats are working night and day to establish a 1 party State. Such a system is more akin to the former Soviet Union than the former colony which led the way to American Independence, led by men such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Edmund Randolph. If events continue unabated, we will lost our inheritance of liberty and freedom. It would be a unspeakable tragedy if 419 years after Virginia’s founding, we lost all we built up over those years.

Do you think it cannot happen? Then you are not paying attention.

The Founding Fathers tried to save us from Abigail Spanberger’s greedy Virginia power grab

BY:          David Harsanyi, The New York Post (April 23, 2026).

During the national debates of 1788, the great Virginian James Madison worried that mere “parchment barriers,” or constitutions, wouldn’t be enough to stop an “overbearing majority” from seeking power and stripping minorities of their voice and rights.

What he envisioned, in other words, was someone like Abigail Spanberger.

Virginia’s current governor recently signed a bill making her state the 18th to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a scheme to circumvent the Constitution and award all electoral votes to the presidential ticket with the highest national vote total — rather than to the candidate who won the state’s election.

Democrats spend a lot of their time accusing Republicans of denying minorities a vote.

Virginia Democrats, already pushing the most radical gerrymandering in US history, now propose handing the votes of all Virginians to other states with dissimilar, sometimes conflicting, interests.

How would Virginians feel if their electors ignored their votes to follow states that legalized the illegal immigrant vote or didn’t require voter ID?

Because nationalizing elections means nationalizing the corruption and voting problems of other states.

One of the most fruitless tasks in contemporary politics is championing countermajoritarian institutions.

It’s not a surprise that the Electoral College, which tempers some of the excesses of democracy, isn’t popular — especially among Democrats who’d like to silence massive swaths of the country.

How many people understand that, despite its elevated place in our vernacular and thinking, a “popular vote” isn’t a real thing?

Winning the overall vote is like tallying the most hits rather than winning the most games in a World Series.

Even that analogy exaggerates its significance, because the presidential “popular vote” represents the gross totals of a contest that isn’t being played.

Presidential tickets, after all, focus on appealing to voters in 51 separate elections.

If presidential candidates concentrated on big, untapped reserves of voters in major states, the “popular vote” would look very different — and not in a healthy way.

Forty states, for example, have smaller populations than Los Angeles County.

A “democracy”-loving left-winger majoritarian must therefore believe that Los Angeles voters should have a bigger say than those 40 states.

Too many Americans have been programmed to believe that voting is not only the pinnacle of civic duty, but also of power. Otherwise, they will argue, the country is experiencing “minority rule.”  But no one with even a passing knowledge of US history believes that’s what the framers envisioned.

Democrats have also convinced half the country that the Electoral College’s undercutting of the popular vote is an antiquated quirk of the Constitution.

No, it’s the point.

The Electoral College compels national candidates to moderate their views, create coalitions and appeal to voters in disparate areas who have disparate interests and needs.

In this way, a diffused election generates stability.

Anyway, we are inching closer to a true constitutional crisis.

The member states of the compact don’t have to send their votes to the “popular vote” winner until the coalition reaches an Electoral College majority of 270.

With Virginia on board, the number is now at 222.

How would the Supreme Court rule if the member states stole an election?

The Constitution explicitly rejects the notion of direct popular vote for the president.

It’s not opaque.

The Founders debated numerous other processes, mechanisms and ideas for electing a president, and landed on this compromise. States have leeway in how they run their own elections.

By creating a de facto direct democracy, the compact threatens not only to compel state electors to cast votes against candidates that voters have chosen, but also to deny the country the ability to run a presidential election using the constitutional design of the framers.

Moreover, there’s already a prescription in place to change the process: It’s called a constitutional amendment.

It’s difficult to pass one? Yeah, and that’s deliberate as well.

Bottom of Form

We are heading into third-world direct democracy territory, with threats against the legislative filibuster — seemingly on its last legs — and the Electoral College.

A significant number of progressive groups also want to pack the Supreme Court and lament the undemocratic nature of two-seat Senate representation.

Any elected official who signs this compact is literally abandoning his or her constitutional duty.

Then again, in the end, the Constitution is only as good as the people.

And that doesn’t bode well for its survival these days.

GFK

English left yesterday for South Carolina, in order to visit with Gram and Rufe. She left me with a very grumpy basset hound. All these years, and I still do not understand why it is my fault that English is not at home.

Dudley got a little pot roast with his dinner last night. And that was after his nightly treat of some Hub’s peanuts. You might think that that endeared me to him. Nope. He ate it, and then went to pout in one of the bedrooms. Ungrateful cur.

I would love to go to South Carolina. But someone has to take care of Dudley. I refuse to put him in a kennel, because that would make him miserable. It might kill him. And despite his petulant, stubborn behavior, I love him very much.

Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired. It appears that former Navy diver, retired Captain and Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao will be his replacement.

The United States Department of Justice indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on criminal charges related to wire fraud. In essence, the SPLC was funding the very “hate” it claimed to fight against. For example, the SPLC was instrumental in funding the Neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, where 1 young woman was murdered, and upon which China Joe claims he was inspired to run for President. The SPLC has also contributed monies to the Ku Klux Klan. All this while denouncing these groups, and fundraising off the need to defeat these groups. Sigh. It makes one wonder what the Left would do if it did not have “hate” to oppose. If everybody just got along, would the Left fade away?

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that California’s laws attempting to regulate how ICE agents conducted their operations (for example, wearing masks), was unconstitutional. As predicted.

Virginia Democrats can look forward to their stupid attempted regulation of ICE to meet a similar fate. So can New Jersey Democrats.

“I do not believe that Mayor Brandon Johnson is doing enough to tamper down these activities.  What we have seen is Chicago has now become a destination location for illegal street takeovers like this where hundreds of youth are encouraged to descend on a location, and whether it’s to do mob action, regardless of if he likes the term or not, illegal street takeovers with our vehicles or other activities that are criminal, people know to come here.  They know they can get away with it, and they know that oftentimes our police are handcuffed themselves from stopping and interceding at these events.”

–Chicago, Illinois Alderman Raymond Lopez (D.).

Downtown Chicago is inundated weekly with mobs of violent teens that take over the street, commit violence against locals and local businesses. And Mayor Johnson (D.) will do nothing about it.

Illinois Democrats are seeking to amend the State Constitution in order to require legislative districts to be drawn with racial considerations. Hmmm. Redistricting based on race. Sounds racist to me.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D. Ca.) directed public funding to a non-governmental organization who brought in illegal aliens suffering from AIDS. Now on what planet is that a good idea?

The California State government is considering whether to use taxpayer dollars to provide illegal aliens with attorneys to contest deportations. Huh. I am actually shocked that California does not already do this.

At UCLA Law School, the student chapter of The Federalist Society invited the U.S. Department of Homeland Security General Counsel to speak. Predictably, Leftists could not abide the fact that someone with whom they disagreed would be allowed to speak at a small student gathering. So naturally these Leftists disrupted the speech, threatening violence, calling the speaker and the attendees vile and profane names, and making general horses’ asses of themselves. Just another day in the life of those who are always claiming that the Trump Administration is an authoritarian regime threatening our civil liberties. You know, like the freedoms of speech, assembly, and association.

Anheuser-Busch is committed to investing an additional $600 million in American manufacturing over the next 2 years. Sadly, I do not care for Budweiser. But a lot of Americans do, and this should make them very happy. WINNING!

Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres were sold for $3.9 billion. That is a lot of peanuts and Cracker Jack.

The United States Navy seized yet another tanker carrying sanctioned Iranian oil. This seizure occurred in the Indian Ocean. WINNING!

The New York Mets are the worst team in baseball. They have spent millions upon millions of dollars, and have nothing to show for it. Interestingly, the Mets’ most recent 12 game losing streak began when Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D. N.Y.) visited Citi Field, and was photographed hugging the Mets mascot. Socialism strikes again! It makes everyone miserable!

Dave Mason, co-founder of the band, Traffic, has died at age 79. R. I. P.

Representative David Scott (D. Ga.) has died at age 80. R. I. P.

Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, has died at age 81. R. I. P.

GFK

Yesterday was Earth Day.  When I was young, it was a day to clean up your neighborhood, and the emphasis was on not littering and polluting.  Under China Joe, the emphasis was on how to give government more control over our lives by restricting our energy sources and choices.  Oh, boy!

China Joe insisted that the American people cut carbon emissions 50% by 2050.  What was his plan, chop down all the trees?  Or convince Americans to quit breathing?

China Joe’s climate czar John Kerry pressured banks to stop lending to energy companies, other than solar and wind firms.  Twelve (12) States asked China Joe to ban the U.S. production of gas and diesel automobiles by 2035.  Terrible idea.  Unconstitutional.  China Joe loved it.

But yesterday? It was a beautiful day. I drove my diesel sedan without guilt. No one harangued me about saving the planet. There were no marches or demonstrations, or cries of “the sky is falling”. It was actually a lovely and normal Spring Day. What a difference it makes when the Left is not in power.

Sadly, after the lovely Spring day faded into night, the Virginia election returns came in. By a narrow margin, the referendum disenfranchising 1/2 of the Commonwealth’s voters passed. Voters in Fairfax County provided the difference in the margin.

So now the battle moves to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The entire referendum process was illegal and unconstitutional, as we have outlined before. Let us hope and pray that the justices have the courage to do the right thing, and apply the law. If so, yesterday will have just been a huge waste of time and money. If not, Virginia will be under the thumb of the authoritarians. Yep, authoritarians. Because it is the Left, not the Right, that imposes tyranny in the United States of America.

A dear reader inquired as to whether I subscribed to the view that Virginia was okay to trash its Constitution, and oppress its citizens, because “Texas started it”. I do not.

Texas did not start extreme partisan gerrymandering. Indeed, Texas did not engage in extreme partisan gerrymandering. What Texas did was to respond to a court decision and a directive from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division.

Furthermore, States that have engaged in extreme partisan gerrymandering are Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, California, Oregon, Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey. And those States all did this well before Texas did anything.

Finally, it does not matter what other States do when it comes to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth of Virginia is for the protection of Virginians, not to even the perceived score with other States. How does it promote “democracy” when you disenfranchise your own citizens? How does it promote “democracy” when you violate the laws and the Constitution to pass your power grab scheme?

And this is not a one off. General Assembly Democrats passed legislation for Virginia to award its electoral votes to the winner of the “national popular vote” in presidential elections. Virginia voters do not matter, only voters in other States matter. If Democrats run up big margins in California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, it matters not what Virginia voters want. It will only matter what voters in those other States want.

Virginia Democrats are not for “fairness”. Virginia Democrats are not in favor of “democracy”. Virginia Democrats are only for Democrats. They are the true authoritarians, in the Commonwealth, and nationally. Tyranny is being imposed. What are we going to do about it?

“Through sly structural changes, Democrats are effectively erasing the American Revolution and replacing it with the French Revolution.

The Founders believed in individual liberty against the might of the state. They were terrified of unconstrained democracy, for they understood that mobs are easily swayed and manipulated. Therefore, they created filters on the way to the federal government.

The House of Representatives has a direct vote (and that vote was expected to represent coherent local communities, not gerrymandered monstrosities). Until the 17th Amendment, state governments, which again represented the filtered will of the local people, selected Senators. And the president was selected by the EC, which ensured that each state had its say and that each region of America had a representative voice.

Morality, too, was important: As John Adams famously wrote, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’

The French Revolution, by contrast, was purely statist, with the state supported by a mindless mob. It was virulently hostile to the Bible and willing to use the utmost violence to maintain its goals.

If you think there’s any difference between the leftist street protests with people screaming to geld little boys, cheering on the annihilation of the Jewish state, or celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination and demanding the same for Trump, on the one hand, and the French mobs cheering on Louis XVI’s beheading, on the other hand, you are lying to yourself.

Choose your analogy: The leftists are storming the Bastille or firing on Fort Sumter. Either way, you’ll be correct. They’re out for blood, and we’re still sitting there sucking our thumbs and promising ourselves everything will be fine. With these changes to our elections, every Republican who stays home in November, whether from laziness or pique, is effectively voting for the new revolution.”

–Andrea Widburg, excerpted from her April 22, 2026 article in The American Thinker, entitled “Democrats are transforming the American Revolution into the French Revolution, Whether it’s Virginia’s redistricting, James Carville’s plans, endless impeachments, or the Popular Vote Compact, leftist revolution is on the menu.”

The United States Secretary of Labor has resigned amidst allegations of untoward behavior. She is a Democrat, from Oregon. I cannot remember her name. And under the circumstances, it does not matter. No one cares.

“Awesome!”

–Senator Christopher Murphy (D. Ct.), reacting to the news that Iranian ships had evaded the United States Navy’s blockade. Sigh. A United States Senator unapologetically cheering our enemies.

Senator Murphy cheers for those who chant “Death to America!” and supports open borders and illegal aliens. He may be a United States Senator, but he is not on Americans’ side.

As an aside, Senator Murphy reacted gleefully to news that turned out to be fake. What a bozo.

Senator Thom Tillis (R. N.C.) supports the nomination of Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve Bank Chairman. Yet, Senator Tillis plans to block Mr. Warsh’s nomination. Because . . . Orange Man Bad.

“Why do we continue to import people who hate us?”

–Representative Chip Roy (R. Tx.).

Representative Chip Roy introduced legislation that would amend existing immigration law to prohibit the admission and naturalization of any alien who is or was a member of, affiliated with, or advocates or advocated for a Chinese communist party, communist party, socialist party, Islamic fundamentalist party, or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate thereof), domestic or foreign.  The legislation would also apply to any alien who is or was affiliated with, or who advocates or advocated for, any organization that advocates socialism, communism, Chinese communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.  The bill would also create new grounds for deportation. Under the legislation, an alien could be removed from the United States if he has engaged, is engaged, or at any time after admission engages in advocacy for communism, Chinese communism, socialism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism; writes, distributes, circulates, prints, displays, possesses, or publishes any written, electronic, or printed matter that advocates those ideologies or that is on behalf of or advocates for such parties; or is, has been, or becomes a member of or affiliated with such parties or organizations.

This legislation is pure common sense.  And even better, Representative Roy picked the perfect name—“The Mamdani Act”—named New York City Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani.  I LOVE IT!

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D. Fl.) resigned from Congress.  Because she is a liar and a thief.  Next stop, prison.

How far Left, how unserious, how radical has the Democrat Party become? Former Harvard Law Professor, and lifetime Democrat, Alan Dershowitz has become a Republican.

New York State passed a law mandating that long term care facilities for the elderly and the terminally ill make all decisions based upon a patient’s “gender preference”, as opposed to biological sex. This includes everything from room assignments to bathroom access to use of pronouns and names. Penalties include loss of operating license, fines, and jail. It is a stupid law. It is also aimed squarely at the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a Catholic Order, who operate a hospice. For more than 100 years, the Sisters have cared for the terminally ill with care and compassion, never charging any patient a dime, and accepting no public funding. Nonetheless, the State of New York demands the Sisters’ surrender to the radical “trans” agenda, their religious beliefs be damned. This legislation is truly evil.

The Albany Unified School District [California] sent a group of students of color (“colored students?) on a trip to Virginia to study topics of “social justice” at several historically black colleges. No Saltine Americans needed to apply, as they were not permitted to make the trip.

Is racism a part of the “social justice” learning experience? Apparently so!

In Wisconsin, a mob of radical animal rights activists tried to storm a Beagle breeding facility, and riot police squads were necessary to disperse the crowd. Now that same mob has stormed the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, and are demanding that the Governor close down the breeding facility. Sigh.

The illegal alien tried for sexually assaulting and groping high school girls in his Fairfax County, Virginia high school? He was sentenced to a mere 180 days in jail. Basically, he will serve 20 days in jail, per victim. Justice demands a lengthy prison sentence, mandatory registration as a sex offender, and then deportation. But this occurred in Fairfax County, where a criminal illegal alien is more important than parents’ daughters.

In DeKalb County, Georgia, a British national—Olaolukitan Adon Abel—was arrested for the death of Lauren Bullis, a Department of Homeland Security employee, and another woman.  Abel stabbed Bullis multiple times and shot her while she was walking her dog.  Abel is facing two counts of murder, aggravated assault, and weapons charges.  Mr. Abel’s attorney has asked for bond, assuring the Court that her client—an alien—is not a flight risk.  Moreover, his attorney further assured the Court that Mr. Abel was not a “danger to the community”.  He shot Lauren Bullis 6 times in the face!  Sigh.  I am so embarrassed by my colleagues at times.

In Indiana, a radical Leftist United States District Court judge struck down Indiana’s voter ID law as unconstitutional, because the law did not permit the use of IDs issued by colleges and universities. It was a baseless decision. Thankfully, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit stayed the lower court’s decision. The Indiana law remains in effect.

APPLE CEO Tim Cook is stepping down. Where will the company go now?

American Airlines and United Airlines are exploring a possible merger. What a bad idea! Why not just bring back New Coke, while we are at it?

I highly recommend Chick-Fil-A’s new and seasonal strawberry/hibiscus drinks. I have tried both the Sprite and the lemonade. Both were refreshing, and delicious!

For the last 10 months, Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C. has been closed. The restaurant, located at 14th and U Streets, NW, survived the riots following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the George Floyd riots, remaining open throughout. But Ben’s Chili Bowl finally succumbed to construction contractors. The aging restaurant needed structural repair, and was expected to be closed only for a short while. It has been nearly a year. But come May 1, Washingtonians can once again return for a good half-smoke with chili, fries with chili, cheeseburgers and hot dogs with chili, or just a bowl of chili. WOO HOO!

The European Court of Justice ruled that Hungary cannot ban the promotion of homosexuality to minors. You must be joking!

The United States Navy seized an Indian oil tanker carrying Iranian oil, in the Bay of Bengal. WINNING!

The Indian cargo vessel that the Navy fired on as it tried to run the blockade? It was transporting materials to Iran from China. The materials were key components used in the manufacture of ballistic missiles.

The PGA Tour is dropping Hawaii. The Tour will no longer have stops in Maui (Tournament of Champions) and Oahu (Hawaiian Open). Which is a real shame. There is nothing better in the dead of Winter than turning on the television and watching golf being played in a warm climate. It is dark and cold outside, but on your screen, golf pros are dressed in short shirt sleeves, and hitting golf balls over manicured green grass, as the Sun shines in the background. I am going to miss that.

Singer and songwriter Alan Osmond has died at age 76. R. I. P.

Former Oakland Raiders linebacker Rod Martin has died at age 72. R. I. P.

GFK

In innumerable ways, America is a great country. But in 1 important way, America finds itself in decline. That is, the decline of what was referred to as “The Protestant Work Ethic”.

All over the United States, more and more people are refusing to work. Government has made being poor quite comfortable. Pursuits such as gambling, gaming, and smoking dope have taken up the time normally reserved for work.

This decline did not happen overnight. It began in the late 1960s, when then President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to further expand President Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, by creating “The Great Society”. Government declared “War on Poverty”. Some 63 years later, after spending more than $37 trillion, poverty won.

We still have about the same number of poor as we always did. But the “poor” live better today, than did many of the “rich” many, many years ago. Moreover, while the “poor” are only gradually growing, they are steadily growing more militant, demanding that they are entitled to a share of others’ wealth.

This sense of entitlement is not restricted to the “poor”. Tell a senior citizen that they are not “entitled” to Social Security and Medicare. But do so only while standing out of arm’s reach. People truly believe that the taxes they paid are really theirs, and that they are entitled to a pension and medical care. Which is understandable, because that is exactly how government sold these taxes to them. Newsflash: government lied.

Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. The money is not there. It never was. Current taxpayers are merely transferring funds to current beneficiaries. There is nothing in the bank for them.

And, if government chooses to end, or reduce, Social Security benefits, there is nothing you can do about it. YOU. HAVE. NO. RIGHT. TO. SOCIAL SECURITY. OR. MEDICARE. None.

Below is an excellent article about the loss of the work ethic by Mr. Barton Swaim, a Wall Street Journal columnist. The recovery of our work ethic is the first step to recovery from this comfortable pit of despair that we began digging under President Johnson. Enjoy.

America Loses Its Will to Work

From the War on Poverty to ‘quiet quitting,’ we’ve stopped appreciating the value of honest labor.

BY: Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal (April 17, 2026).

‘In democratic peoples, where there is no hereditary wealth, everyone works to live, or has worked, or was born of people who worked. The idea of work as a necessary, natural and honest condition of humanity is therefore offered to the human mind on every side.”

Thus wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America” about the reverence with which this country’s citizens in the 1830s regarded remunerative labor. The great French writer compared aristocratic societies, among whose elite work was regarded as a thing to be done for honor but not money, with the nascent bourgeois society of America, in which gainful employment was an unavoidable part of life. Half a century ago the average college-educated American would have endorsed Tocqueville’s remark and marveled that anyone would think otherwise. In the 2020s many Americans evidence a deep confusion about the nature and purpose of work.

The weakening of America’s Protestant work ethic, to use a contested but irreplaceable phrase, is a complicated story, but you could trace its beginnings to the 1960s. No one has chronicled that story more incisively than Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute. In November Mr. Eberstadt published “America’s Human Arithmetic,” a collection of essays mainly on the subject of labor. The book includes a 2014 address about Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, that assortment of programs begun in the mid-1960s—Head Start, Medicaid, expanded food stamps and many others.

Did the “war” bring victory? On the one hand, today’s poor live vastly more prosperous lives by any material measure than the poor of the 1960s. Talk of citizens living over or under a “poverty line” is meaningless, Mr. Eberstadt shows, the de facto line having risen so dramatically upward—a fact that has little to do with government transfer payments and almost everything to do with rapid economic growth in the postwar period.

On the other hand, antipoverty programs have left more or less the same proportion of the citizenry dependent on welfare and disinclined to join the workforce. So private-sector growth has made today’s “poor” rich by comparison with their forerunners two generations ago, even as government antipoverty measures have ensured that today’s poor, however well off by comparison, remain dependent and resistent to upward mobility. The War on Poverty hasn’t only failed; it has weakened virtues its originators took for granted.

Three decades after the War on Poverty began, congressional Republicans passed, and a Democratic president signed, the most sweeping reform yet made to America’s welfare state. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 conditioned the most important forms of direct welfare payments on employment or the search for employment. Opponents predicted disaster. New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, formerly a critic of America’s welfare state, predicted that his colleagues who voted for the bill would “take this disgrace to their graves.” In fact, the reform succeeded. It moved millions off welfare rolls and into the labor market.

The law mainly reformed Aid to Families With Dependent Children, which it renamed Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But expansions and liberalizations of other safety-net programs in succeeding years have negated the gains made by the 1996 law. Is a similar reform possible in 2026? Not a chance. The culture has radically changed.

In the mid-1990s, politicians and commentators could still speak of America’s work ethic without apology. In the 2020s, America’s cognoscenti constantly suggest something baneful in the bourgeois idea that gainful toil is virtuous—movies romanticizing manipulated workers and vilifying rapacious corporate executives; intellectuals contending that the five-day, 40-hour work week abuses wage laborers; academics suggesting terms like “work ethic” are racist; journalists ready to portray every worker-management relationship as exploitative. A steady stream of freshly published books crosses my desk in which the authors insist that the American workplace jades employees and managers alike. Recall also the Covid-era glorification of “quiet quitting”—in which employees simply stop doing the jobs they were contracted to do—and the scores of think pieces claiming that Americans’ “work-life balance” is less than optimal.

Note the tacit premise that “work” is opposed to “life.” Evidence abounds that many Americans no longer consider gainful work a natural and necessary part of life. The sudden explosion of online sports betting bespeaks a nation of young men looking for ways to pocket cash for no work. The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA struck down a federal prohibition from 1992. By the time of that ruling the stigma attaching to sports betting had all but disappeared and widespread legalization seemed destined one way or another.

Pandemic-era measures that kept able-bodied men in their homes, bored and looking for ways to pocket a few bucks, enhanced the attractiveness of wagering on games. Americans bet $5 billion on sports in 2018. In 2024 they bet $150 billion. The sports-betting phenomenon reveals, if nothing else, the loss of any notion that income should bear some relation to a product or service rendered. The bettor produces no product or service for his winnings. Indeed, that is the draw—money for nothing, or nothing that benefits anyone but the bettor. Such an ethic bothered previous generations. It bothers ours much less.

Ponder also the sudden ubiquity of advertisements for personal-injury law firms that promise to get their clients ample reward for damages. All over the country one encounters them on television, radio and billboards, with phone numbers leading to call centers that weed out weak claims. Have so many people really suffered bodily injury? An unknowing visitor to the U.S. in 2026 might be forgiven for wondering why more Americans aren’t hobbling around in leg casts and wearing neck braces. Some personal-injury suits are right and just. Yet any moderately observant person can see that the industry, if that’s the right term for it, has tapped into a massive market of Americans no longer ashamed to avoid work and rake in unearned cash.

We’ve known for years about the slow flight of working-age men from gainful employment. Mr. Eberstadt’s “Men Without Work” (2016) documents in painful detail the moral and psychological costs of men leaving the labor force since the mid-1960s. New and frightening is the phenomenon of “disconnection” among the young, both male and female. About 1 in 7 Americans 18 to 24, according to a recent Rand study, are neither working nor looking for work. Many young people support a “universal basic income”—a government payment to every American, regardless of income or employment status.

In 1996, 30 Democrats in the House and 25 in the Senate voted to reform welfare laws, and a Democratic president signed the bill. Today, approximately zero Democrats exhibit any interest in changes to welfare programs that don’t involve spending more on them. Since the death of George Floyd and attendant protests, moreover, the nation’s cultural arbiters decided not to question the premises of the Great Society and War on Poverty and instead to double down on welfare-state fundamentalism. If Republicans wish to do anything about America’s declining work ethic, they will have to do it alone.

The public knows there’s a problem. Stories about the theft of billions of dollars from Medicaid and other programs in Minnesota have revivified the idea that welfare programs dole out money to undeserving recipients and need reform. The fraud in Minnesota, perpetrated mostly by members of the state’s Somali population, is stupendous in its scope and cost—so much so that the center-left press, including the New York Times, felt obliged to cover the story. But similar stories of welfare fraud have emerged in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, all covered by local media.

Millions of ordinary Americans, moreover, saw the bogus ways in which large parts of the public sector used the 2020-21 pandemic as an excuse not to work. They also see the major disincentives to productivity—the exploding use of marijuana, thanks to the federal government’s refusal to enforce its ban; the ease with which undeserving applicants may receive benefits from programs like Women, Infants and Children, among many others; and the channeling of ambitious and industrious college graduates into jobs that create no useful product or service: academic instructors in arcane subjects, sustainability advisers, diversity coordinators, development and communications managers for activist organizations, and on and on.

The rebuilding of America’s work ethic is a politically saleable theme ready for use by any candidate brave enough to talk about a subject requiring a few sentences of nuanced explanation. But most Republicans avoid the subject, or address it, when they must, obnoxiously. Last summer, when GOP lawmakers passed a budget bill that imposed modest work requirements on able-bodied recipients of Medicaid payments, they defended the provision in one of two ways—either by misleadingly claiming that illegal aliens’ use of Medicaid dollars justified the reform, or by referring sardonically to “able-bodied men in their parents’ basement playing videogames” or some such phrase.

America’s work-ethic deficit goes far beyond illegal migrants, who know they risk deportation if they get caught taking benefits, and dudes living with their parents.

It’s true that any suggestion of reforming a federal welfare program to encourage its recipients to achieve greater financial independence will invite accusations of heartlessness, cruelty and racism. That’s politics. A genuine concern for lives distorted by unreformed welfare programs can make those accusations sound empty.

Two further circumstances complicate a coherent GOP message on work and welfare.

First, a small but influential part of the party rejects the conservative insight that public handouts tend to distort incentives to work. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, the most vocal exponent of this viewpoint, last year fulminated at the overwhelming majority of his fellow Republican lawmakers who voted for a modest stiffening of Medicaid eligibility rules. He calls Medicaid “working-class social insurance” and cheers its expansion. Aligned with Mr. Hawley are Vice President JD Vance and an influential coterie of socially right-wing but state-friendly conservatives.

Second, the Trump administration has made its chief policy objective the expulsion of illegal aliens. The president’s political advisers show every sign of making that effort, for all its problems in execution, the central Republican message in this year’s midterm elections. The great majority of Americans support the effort to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes other than crossing the border unlawfully, and probably a majority assents, in the abstract, to the defensibility of deporting all illegal aliens regardless of criminal record.

But in rounding up law-abiding migrant workers, the administration has found itself targeting men looking for work in Home Depot parking lots—men who want to engage in gainful labor and who, whatever zealous Republicans might say in an election year, don’t draw welfare checks. Hispanics—overwhelmingly the object of zealous immigration enforcement—consistently outperform all other groups in labor-force participation rates. The administration’s highest priority, to put the point bluntly, appeared to be to deport guys who hang drywall, install shingles and generally contribute to economic growth.

None of this need stop GOP officeholders and -seekers from making the case for the Protestant work ethic in 2026 and beyond. Since the pandemic, American society has seemed to turn away from its presuppositional faith in remunerative labor. Our belief in work as, in Tocqueville’s words, “a necessary, natural and honest condition of humanity” is no longer a tacit assumption but a disputed viewpoint. Elected leaders can’t solve that problem by passing reforms to welfare laws, but they can force the public to consider the subject. That the public will reward them for it isn’t certain, but a proud nation generally likes to be reminded of its old virtues.

GFK

“90 percent of Virginians aren’t Democrats, that’s true, but about 100 percent of Virginians want election results to be respected.  We’re deeply worried that Donald Trump will try to interfere with the election results this November or in 2028, cause we saw him do it before.  And we have to have a Congress that will stand up to it.  In 2021, all five Republicans in Virginia went along with Donald Trump in his effort to overturn an election result.  So we’re giving Virginians a chance to vote, which Republican states have not done, about whether they want to have a Congressional delegation that will stand up against Donald Trump’s tyranny.”

–Senator Tim Kaine (D. Va.), explaining that the redistricting amendment vote was not about fairness, but about standing up to Trump. Because . . . Orange Man Bad.

Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The question today is whether the Constitution should be amended to permit the General Assembly to redraw the electoral maps. But the decision today is whether Democrats will be able to silence the voices of 50% of Virginians. If the referendum passes, then the liberty and political representation of 1/2 of the Commonwealth will end. Fairfax County will rule the Commonwealth. Power, once gained, will not be voluntarily relinquished.

Below are 2 articles touching on today’s choice. Enjoy.

Virginia Democrats stealing Republican residents’ access to representative government

Gerrymandering raises Civil War-era questions about federal power and rights

BY:          Michael McKenna, The Washington Times (April 12, 2026).

For the past few years, this column has argued that the Civil War — had it been only or even mostly about slavery — was unnecessary, the product of incompetent leadership, especially on the Northern side.

Somehow, all the other nations in the Western Hemisphere abandoned slavery in the early and middle 19th century without resorting to bloodshed. Only the United States required a war to settle the question of slavery.

That is, of course, why most thoughtful people understand that the war between the states was really about competing visions of the power of the federal government. Robert E. Lee, the great general of the Army of Northern Virginia, noted that “the consolidation of the States into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”

Given our circumstances, that seems prophetic.

Lee was pointing out that many in the Confederacy were fighting for something more fundamental than the preservation of slavery; they were engaged in an effort to preserve a constrained federal government. Those on the federal side of things were — intentionally or otherwise — fighting to expand the size and authority of the central government.

Each side was convinced that their beliefs were important enough to justify killing their fellow Americans.

That seems relevant to our current moment in the commonwealth of Virginia. In an effort to confirm every suspicion that people have about them, the Democrats in the Virginia legislature passed — and the new “moderate” governor signed — an aggressive gerrymandering plan that would almost certainly result in the Democrats winning in 10 of the 11 congressional districts in the commonwealth.

At the moment, Democrats represent six congressional districts, while the Republicans represent five. That makes sense, given that the Democrats typically have a 5- or 6-percentage-point advantage in Virginia.

Essentially disenfranchising 30% or 40% of the voters was not enough for the Virginia Democrats, though. They took the extra step and redrew the districts such that the ballast of the vote in five districts would be in Fairfax or Arlington counties and another four districts would be anchored in the urban parts of Norfolk and Richmond.

In other words, it is not just a partisan gerrymander; it is a regional gerrymander. If you don’t live in Fairfax, Arlington, Richmond or Norfolk, then you are effectively robbed of your ability to participate in representative government.

Finally, and most painfully, the most destructive part of this process is that under Virginia law, the redrawing of districts has to be confirmed by a referendum of the voters. In other words, if the half of Virginia voters who do not vote for Democrats lose access to representative government, then it would not be at the hands of rabidly partisan and mostly dim-witted state legislators.

Rather, it would be at the hands of their neighbors, friends and fellow citizens who should know better. No one expects anything from elected officials, but most people believe that their neighbors — people who know them — will exercise prudential and reasonable judgment.

This is how civil wars start. If one set of citizens can and does take away the vote of their fellow citizens for any reason or for no reason, then what does the republic stand for and what does it stand upon?

____________________________________________________________________

Will Maryland and Virginia become one-party states?

Chasing out conservatives any way they can

BY:          Robert Knight, The Washington Times (April 12, 2026).

When motorists cross the Potomac River from Virginia via the bridge at Point of Rocks, Maryland, they are greeted by a “Welcome to Maryland” sign with a message from Gov. Wes Moore: “Leave no one behind.”

That might sound good if it meant something like the U.S. military’s daring rescue of the downed jet pilot in Iran this month, but coming from a liberal Democrat such as Mr. Moore, it’s more like a vow to have government reach into every last aspect of people’s lives.

Democrats already control seven of the state’s eight congressional seats, but that’s not enough. Mr. Moore has called for gerrymandering the Eastern Shore district of Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican and the chairman of the House Conservative Caucus.

In 2010, Democrats gerrymandered Western Maryland, which had been represented by 10-term Republican conservative Roscoe Bartlett. He didn’t fit into the Baltimore machine’s idea of a congressman, so they got rid of him in 2012. Now they want to finish the job of making Maryland a one-party state like Massachusetts or Rhode Island.

Baltimore is by far the state’s largest city. It was the girlhood home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose father, Thomas d’Alesandro Jr., was a mob-connected three-term mayor. Baltimore’s political culture is a classic urban mix of union power, identity politics, poverty, socialism and high crime.

On the other side of the ledger, it has the Orioles, Ravens, Johns Hopkins University and some first-rate Italian and seafood restaurants. Plus, Fort McHenry and the Chesapeake Bay.

Then we come to education. According to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program for 2024-2025, only 13% of students in grades three through 12 in Baltimore City schools were proficient in math, and only 31% in English. SAT scores cratered to a new low.

Losing nearly 2,500 students from 2019 to 2025, Baltimore City Public Schools nonetheless added nearly 2,100 full-time staff. Nearby Baltimore County added 531 employees during that period while losing nearly 3,800 students, according to Georgetown University data cited by Heritage Foundation research fellow Corey DeAngelis in The Washington Times.

You might think that parents are getting a better deal because there must be more teachers per student, but the number of teachers in Baltimore County decreased by 53, along with a drop in custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers — the people who directly serve the students. The staffing increase was 267 school bureaucrats, a hike of 21%.

On top of this, a new study by Lending Tree pegs Maryland as the third most expensive state in which to raise a child, trailing only Hawaii and Alaska.

Getting back to Mr. Moore’s promise of not leaving anyone behind, Maryland lawmakers are now taking aim at the state’s faith-based schools, which they don’t control but wish they did.

In March, the state House passed HB 649, which adds gender identity and sexual orientation to anti-discrimination law and applies it to all schools, including private and religious schools. Now in the Senate, the bill would create a private right of action so that leftist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union or the Satanic Temple can sue faith-based schools that won’t bend their knees to Baal or Baphomet.

The tally was 100 Democrats voting yes and 35 Republicans voting no. Remember this the next time someone insists the parties are indistinguishable.

Once upon a time, Maryland residents who grew tired of the Free State’s leftist rulers could move to Virginia, but that option is closing. Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned as a moderate Democrat but emerged as a flame-throwing radical upon taking power in January, is pushing a multipronged, left-wing agenda, including tax hikes and gun grabbing.

After stating that she opposed gerrymandering, she threw her support behind a gerrymandering constitutional amendment. It would change the state’s congressional delegation from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats and one Republican.

Sounds fair, right? The ballot language actually ensures voters that it would “restore fairness in the upcoming elections.”

Democrats, who say they want to counter Republican partisan redistricting in Texas, ignored constitutional rules by rushing it to the ballot, and the Virginia Supreme Court punted the case until after the election, set for April 21.

Early voting has been underway since March 6. For some reason, Democrats love “Election Month” instead of Election Day. Turnout has been surprisingly strong in rural Republican areas that face disenfranchisement, but the outcome is anyone’s guess.

Although the amendment could well determine which party wins the U.S. House in November, Democrats are outspending Republicans by millions of dollars. That was how they won another Wisconsin Supreme Court seat Tuesday.

Somebody with deep pockets had better wake up.

If Virginia goes the way of Maryland, then where will God-fearing, conservative Virginians and Maryland refugees go next? Joseph R. Biden’s Delaware? Or will they develop a strange new respect for longhorns and gators?

GFK

“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

–Winston Churchill.

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”

–Vladimir Lenin.

“Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.”

–Milton Friedman.

“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

–John Marshall.

Tax day having come and gone last week, I thought it timely to revisit some myths about taxes in the United States. Because as sure as the Sun rises in the East, if Democrats regain power in Washington, our lives are going to become much more expensive.

MYTH NO. 1: THE RICH DO NOT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES.

This is the most repeated claim in American tax politics and one of the least supported by actual data. The top 1 percent of earners take in 22 percent of total income and pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 10 percent earn about half the nation’s income and pay 72 percent of its taxes. The bottom half of earners, collectively, pay roughly 3 percent of the tax revenue. The United States, in fact, has the most progressive income-tax system in the developed world.

MYTH NO. 2: WE’LL FIX THE BUDGET DEFICIT BY TAXING THE RICH.

We simply cannot. The collective net worth of every American billionaire is estimated at somewhere around $8 trillion. The projected federal deficit over the next decade alone approaches $25 trillion. Even a one-time total confiscation of every billionaire’s wealth wouldn’t come close, and you only get to do it once.

The real driver of America’s fiscal crisis isn’t a shortage of tax revenue from the wealthy. It’s the structural growth of Social Security and Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office projects that such mandatory spending and interest payments will permanently exceed all federal revenue starting next year. No amount you could tax the rich will correct an imbalance like this.

MYTH NO. 3: IF YOU CAN’T TAX THE RICH, TAX THE CORPORATIONS.

Corporations are the next most likely target for those who want large government without the middle class paying for it. The problem is that corporations don’t actually pay taxes. Once you understand why, this starts to look like one of the worst ideas in America’s tax code.

Corporations write checks to the IRS, but they don’t bear the tax burden. Every dollar collected for corporate tax comes from a human: the worker who’s paid a lower wage, the shareholder who earns less and the consumer who pays higher prices at checkout. Research shows that workers bear somewhere between one-third and two-thirds of the corporate tax burden through lower wages. If you have a 401(k), you’re paying it too, quietly, through lower returns on every stock in the fund.

Further, corporate profits are returns on investment. Tax them and you get less investment. Less investment means lower productivity, which leads to lower wages over time. Decades ago, economists Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka showed a better way: Replace the corporate income tax with a consumption-based system under which businesses deduct all wages and capital investment immediately. No double taxation, no penalty on investment, and revenue without unintended economic damage.

The corporate tax survives because voters mistakenly believe someone else pays it. This belief is expensive.

MYTH NO. 4: CAPITAL GAINS SHOULD BE TAXED AS ORDINARY INCOME.

This proposal sounds like common sense, but it’s bad economics. When a company earns a dollar of profit, it pays roughly 26 cents in combined federal and state corporate taxes before distributing the rest to its shareholders. When it’s all said and done, the government has taken close to half of every dollar the company earned. That’s not a tax on the rich — it’s two taxes on the same income.

Those who want to raise capital-gains rates assume the U.S. is a low-tax haven for investors. It’s not. America’s combined federal, state and net investment income tax rate on capital gains already sits at 29.2 percent, well above the average of 19.1 percent in fellow OECD democracies. We’re already an outlier, and not in a good direction.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE FEDERAL BUDGET. There is too much spending. More than 2/3 of all federal spending is unconstitutional. Congress does not have the authority to, for example, involve itself in healthcare, whether by regulating it or subsidizing it. Same with housing, pensions, food, and electric vehicles. Don’t believe me? Read the Constitution, Article I, Section 8. That sets out what Congress is permitted to do. BUT THE COURTS! The Courts have upheld some of these programs (for example, Obamacare). SO WHAT? Newsflash: The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Supreme Court opinions are not the supreme law of the land. If the Supreme Court rules contrary to the Constitution, it is void ab initio.

The United States has too many people riding in the wagon, and not enough people pulling the wagon. When a population figures out a way to force other people to pay for their livelihoods, that society eventually collapses. Slowly, then all at once. This is where the United States is at this point.

Spending must be cut. Incentives for people to look to others for their support must end. We must tax the poor; not because we hate the poor. But all Americans should have some skin in the game. Otherwise the takers will always support politicians who promise to give to them the spoils taken from the producers.

Please consider this carefully. And vote accordingly.

U.S. Transportation Secretary warned New York State months ago that if it did not revise its rules about issuing Commercial Drivers Licenses, his Department would withhold federal funding. More than 1/2 of New York’s CDLs were issued to illegal aliens. Well, the verdict is in; New York refused to revise its rules, and now federal funding is being withheld.

“This is dead on arrival in the Senate.  Temporary Protected Status is just that: temporary.  Beyond that, 91% of all Haitian TPS holders entered the country illegally.  In the last election, the American people rejected mass migration policies that effectively grant amnesty to illegal aliens.  It’s past time to put our own citizens FIRST.”

–Senator Katie Britt (R. Al.).

Last year, Representative Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.) filed Congressional financial disclosures that estimated her net worth at around $30 million. That was a surprise. This year, Representative Omar filed Congressional financial disclosures that estimated her net worth at $95 thousand. That is a bigger surprise. Hmmmm.

So what is Senator Ruben Gallego (D. Az.) hiding about his knowledge of former Representative Eric Swalwell’s egregious sexual behavior, as well as his own bad behavior? Hmmmm.

Politico was working on a story exposing former Representative Eric Swalwell’s egregious sexual behavior in 2019, while he was running for President. But then Politico killed the story when Mr. Swalwell dropped his presidential campaign. Why?

Virginia taxpayers are now stuck paying state income taxes on tips, overtime, car loan interest deductions, and certain business expensing provisions that their federal returns may now deduct or otherwise treat more favorably.  Governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) deliberately chose not to pass along the full Trump tax breaks to Virginia’s citizens.  These changes are the functional equivalent of a targeted tax increase on the very people Democrats claim to champion: the service-industry workers who rely on tips to make ends meet.

What does Spanberger’s action mean for service workers in real terms?  At the federal level, the Big Beautiful Bill now allows waiters, bartenders, delivery drivers, hairstylists, hotel housekeepers, and other service workers to deduct up to $25,000.00 in qualified tips on their federal returns, subject to eligibility rules and phaseouts.  Virginia, however, will still tax those same tips at the state level.  A waitress earning $500.00 a week in tips now watches the state take its 2%–5.75% cut anyway, and that adds up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year that could have gone toward rent, groceries, gas, childcare, or car repairs.

Most tipped employees earn less than $50,000.00 a year total.  They are often young adults, single parents, immigrants, veterans, or retirees working extra shifts just to get by.  These families often live paycheck to paycheck, so every extra dollar taken in state taxes makes it tougher to cover bills, handle emergencies, or give their kids a better shot at life.  It is the exact opposite of helping working families. It turns out that Governor Spanberger is more interested in filling the state’s coffers than the pockets of average Americans.  Affordability.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D.) wrote a memoir, as a run up to his expected presidential campaign. He calls it “best selling”, because 97,000 copies of his book have been purchased. Governor Hair Gel’s own political action committee purchased 67,000 copies. Ouch! Some best seller.

It will be a sad celebration of Independence Day for Southern California residents. Traditionally, the City of Long Beach puts on a spectacular fireworks show over the harbor. People come from all over to view the fireworks. But this year, on the occasion of our country’s 250th birthday, there will be no fireworks show. The California Coastal Commission cancelled it. Because . . . who knows?

Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Michelle Wu (D.) authorized the expenditure of taxpayer funds to provide LGBTQ++ illegal aliens with “wellness” benefits, including yoga lessons, meditation, and gym memberships. When confronted with public outrage, Mayor Wu denied the expenditure, because she claims to have “paused” the transfer of funds. Liar.

“How dare you tell me, as mayor, how to tax you?”

–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mayor Cherelle Parker, responding to citizens’ criticism of her proposal to add surcharges to all Uber and Lyft rides.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski found hailstones in her front yard following a thunderstorm. She is raising the alarm; apparently, according to Mrs. Godlewski, hail is a sign of global warming. We are all going to die!

Seattle, Washington is overrun with homeless people, most all of whom are drug addicts. These people have overrun downtown, public parks, and are now spilling into residential neighborhoods. So what is Seattle’s city government doing about this problem? The city is providing the homeless drug addicts with spoons, foil, pipes, lighters–all sorts of drug paraphernalia–along with condoms. The city is concerned with keeping the drug addicts safe. The law-abiding citizens can just fend for themselves.

“We’ve got a feeble-minded, trigger-happy president who plunged us into a war where no threat was present, with no clear objectives and no exit plan.  We need to call that what it is. That’s fascism.  There are more good people that care about equality, that understand it’s not America First.  It’s humanity first.”

–Tampon Tim (D. Mn.), speaking at a “Global Progressive Mobilization” event in Barcelona, Spain. 

This corrupt, communist loving twit was speaking to a group of commies in Spain, a socialist country, hostile to the United States. He was undermining America’s war effort, while American troops are actively deployed to combat (a service he worked hard to avoid). A disgusting display by a man who sought to be Vice-President.

Hennepin County, Minnesota [Minneapolis] District Attorney Mary Moriarity (D.) charged an ICE agent with 2 felonies for pointing a firearm at an illegal alien during the discharge of his official duties. Ridiculous! This will not end well . . . for Mary Moriarity.

Luzvin Garcia is an illegal alien from Guatemala. He has been terrorizing Northern Virginia, being convicted 25 times for crimes in Arlington and Fairfax Counties. Yet despite his status as an illegal alien, and a violent criminal, governing authorities keep releasing Mr. Garcia into the community, refusing to turn him over to ICE. Now Mr. Garcia is back in custody, having been arrested for the attempted rape of a woman in Arlington. NOW can we turn Luzvin Garcia into ICE, and deport his criminal a$$ back to Guatemala? Please?

Safeway now offers only paper bags for its customers, due to California’s insane environmental regulations. And now Safeway has shifted to only paper bags without handles. Customers are outraged, as the flimsy bags are difficult to carry, and often break.

Well, The San Francisco Chronicle’s annual list of San Francisco’s 100 best restaurants is out, and it is a disappointment. There is 1 steak house listed (the House of Prime Rib, #88), and 1 traditional seafood restaurant (Scoma’s, #78). Everything else is Oriental (Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese), or vegetarian, or something I do not recognize on a plate. There is 1 Mexican restaurant, and 1 pizza restaurant. Sigh. I don’t know who compiles this list, but no doubt he is a hipster doofus who is gluten free, drinks fizzy water, and refrains from drinking alcohol. He is appalled by real food. And it shows.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that “there is something demonic” about the United States’ “political culture”. With all due respect, have you paid any attention to what is going on in Great Britain lately?

Iran claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is open, and shall remain so through the duration of the Israeli/Lebanese ceasefire. We shall see. Iran is still playing games.

Meanwhile, the United States’ blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues. No ships leaving Iranian ports are allowed to depart the Persian Gulf.

No wait! Iran reversed itself, claiming that the Strait of Hormuz is closed again. We shall see. Iran is still playing games.

British Prime Minister Starmer and French President Macron are leading a European effort to fashion a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Talk about being late to the party. President Trump responded appropriately–“No thanks”.

Bob Hall, the only man to compete in the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair, and who is considered the “father of wheelchair racing, has died at age 74. R. I. P.

Country music songwriter Don Shlitz has died at age 73. R. I. P.

Former MLB All Star and Los Angeles Angel Garret Anderson has died at age 53. R. I. P.

GFK

Yesterday, after visiting the Spring market at Audley Farm, English and I went to The Locke Store in Millwood. While there, we purchased a lovely treat–a maple glazed rolled pastry stuffed with sausage, and garnished with sage leaves. Oh, my goodness! It was absolutely delicious. Thankfully, we only bought 1. Because this thing is addictive. Addictive in the way that Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts are addictive. You just cannot stop eating them.

We did vote. We voted “No”. We visited with friends at the Spring Market, and bought some wonderful fresh asparagus and apples from MacIntosh Farms. And we purchased a few surprises for Gram and Rufe. They will have to wait until English visits later this week to learn what they are.

“As long as there are final exams, there will always be prayer in the schools.”

–President Ronald Reagan.

This Sunday, Easter II, is also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The Gospel is from S. John, Our Lord’s discourse on His role as the Good Shepherd. The theme is also found in the Epistle from First S. Peter: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 

We may recall that S. Peter wrote this epistle to Christians living throughout northern Asia Minor (now southern Turkey) who were beginning to experience rising persecution. As well as the danger of apostatizing, many were feeling discouraged in their daily lives. Writing from Rome, where he himself was undergoing the persecution that would culminate in his martyrdom, S. Peter attempts to encourage his readers by invoking the example of their Lord, who was persecuted to the point of death though completely innocent of any offense. 

Persecution is difficult, especially when rights are being taken away, such as participating in the workplace or in the marketplace. When one can no longer provide for himself or his family because of his beliefs, it becomes challenging in the extreme to hold on to one’s faith. In the first serious wave of persecution under Nero, Christians lost their means of livelihood and were stripped of their property. The incentive to recant and burn incense to the emperor was intense. This was the backdrop to S. Peter’s first epistle.

S. Peter makes several points: the first is that all suffering is in accordance with God’s will for us, for it tests our character. In the case of Our Lord, when tested, He revealed even more profoundly God’s love for us. Although He could have responded by cursing those who abused Him, instead He accepted the abuse silently and unhesitatingly. 

Secondly, when we are tested, it is important to remember that it is not because we are cursed. Instead, we are blessed to be able to share in the same mistreatment Our Lord experienced. We are able, as members of His body, to walk that same Way of the Cross. Following His example, we are then privileged to take up our cross to our own Calvary.

Finally, suffering not only tests our character and allows us to participate more fully in the life of Christ, but also builds our character. Each trial and time of testing has the potential to make us stronger in our resolve. By looking through the suffering towards our ultimate end, we can endure with patience each trial, knowing the glory that awaits us.

Christians in our present culture are being tested in ways that are similar to the waves of persecution that swept over first centuries of Christianity. Tenets of the Catholic faith are being challenged in the courts of “progressive” states, and those of strong conviction have had to relinquish their livelihoods. Those who uphold the notion that marriage is “instituted of God” for procreation and the establishing of families are held up to public scorn. Articles in “prestigious” newspapers and magazines ridicule marriage and childbearing for women. “Tradwives” are despised.

But we are not left alone to weather these challenges. Our Lord has gone before us and shows us the way: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. No, we have the Good Shepherd, who does not abandon us to the wolves, but rather stops at nothing to carry His sheep to the safety of the sheepfold, His Church.

____________________________________________________________________

America Needs a New Class of Leaders

Division is also opportunity.

BY:          J.B. Shurk, The American Thinker (March 8, 2026).

In the United States — and the civilizational “West” more broadly — we are a society divided by slogans, propaganda, and social media memes.  It is an unfortunate part of our present reality that we no longer engage in honest “public debate.”  We haven’t done so for a very long time.  

The Founding Fathers wrote essays and pamphlets and delivered hours-long speeches during which they articulated the reasons for their beliefs.  We get pink-hatted people — who may or may not identify as women — “shouting their abortions.”  We get automatons screaming, “Black lives matter,” “Free Palestine,” “Trump is Hitler,” “Hands off Iran,” and whatever other mindless chants billionaire-funded NGOs churn out.  

If you approach people yelling these things and ask them why they believe what they believe, they have no idea.  They can’t explain why “all human lives,” more generally, shouldn’t matter just as much as those with dark skin.  They don’t know anything about Israel’s ancient history, the United Kingdom and France’s colonial carving of the Middle East, the Soviet Union’s promotion of a “Palestinian” identity to cause the United States and its allies problems during the Cold War, any of the multitude of ways that the international community has broken its promises to the Israeli government for the last century, or how the United Nations has spent most of its existence targeting Israel for alleged “human rights” abuses while ignoring unspeakable evils committed by far too many regimes in power today.  They can’t explain why illegal aliens are breaking into America if “Trump is Hitler” or why the president’s determination to protect American citizens from foreign nationals by paying for those foreigners’ return to their own countries is somehow equivalent to Nazi atrocities that included the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of Soviets, Poles, Romani, disabled people, and other so-called “undesirables.”  They don’t have any idea why Iran’s theocratic tyrants and Islamic terrorists deserve to be protected when those tyrants and terrorists have killed, maimed, and kidnapped Americans, Europeans, and Jews around the world for nearly fifty years.  

Our ancestors benefited from Thomas Paine’s polemical pamphlets in favor of American independence.  They listened to Sam Adams’s fiery arguments for revolution.  They attended church services where they heard political exhortations from learned men delivering passionate sermons.  They read newspaper editorials and political essays aloud while drinking ale in local taverns.  Common people heard and debated uncommon ideas that birthed a new nation and altered the historic trajectory of the world.  

We, on the other hand, get hypocrites such as Senator Chuck Schumer, who was last year telling Americans that President Trump was “chickening out” on holding Iran’s Islamic regime accountable for nuclear saber-rattling before telling Americans this year that Trump has no business holding Iran’s Islamic regime accountable for its nuclear saber-rattling.  We get Democrats calling federal law enforcement agents “Trump’s Gestapo” because those agents put their lives on the line arresting criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, and other violent felons.  We get apocalyptic doomsayers such as Al Gore and Barack Obama who have told us that the “science” of “climate change” is “settled,” even though nothing those frauds have predicted has ever come true.  We get public school teachers indoctrinating students with ridiculously false ideas, such as (1) biological sex isn’t real; (2) the January 6, 2021 protest for election integrity was worse than the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks, the Pearl Harbor attack, and the Civil War all wrapped up together; (3) Muslims built America; and (4) America has never been more racist, fascist, or authoritarian than it is today.  We get a left-wing corporate news media establishment pushing the ludicrous argument that requiring voter identification (a basic electoral safeguard enforced around the world) is both racist and an impossible burden for legal voters to surmount (even though Americans must present valid ID to board planes, buy liquor, and enter government buildings).  

Notice that these sources of misinformation never advance anything that remotely resembles a rational argument.  Democrats don’t explain why they used to consider Iran a major national security threat but no longer do.  They don’t explain why it’s perfectly reasonable to attack federal law enforcement officers arresting criminal illegal aliens, even though they’ve spent five years calling the January 6 election protest an unacceptable “attack” on cops.  Barack Obama and other wealthy “global warming” fanatics can’t explain why they own expensive beachfront homes if those homes will soon be under water.  Democrats can’t explain why it’s too difficult for their voters to get photo IDs, or why boys should undress in girls’ locker rooms, or why white men are a “viral disease,” or why all of their political opponents are “racist, fascist Nazis.”  

All of these false statements are simply represented as undisputed “facts” that cannot be questioned.  As a kind of “political correctness” tripwire meant to ensure that these false ideas are never questioned, Democrats further insist that anyone asking questions must be a “racist, fascist Nazi,” too.  Rational argument no longer exists.  In its place, Democrats give us name-calling, self-censorship, circular reasoning, and empty tautology.

America is very divided today.  For most of its two-hundred-and-fifty-year history, though, America has been divided.  It was birthed in revolution.  It survived numerous attacks from foreign powers while still in its infancy.  It grew up through radical social change, profound technological innovation, and endless waves of immigration.  It has gone to war against itself, and it has gone to war against the world.  It has endured hardships that have destroyed other nations.  Nevertheless, its people have persevered, united, settled the wild frontier, built a continent, and prospered.  We look over our shoulders and applaud American achievement without reflecting on our near escapes from American disaster.

Division does not signal disaster.  Division is also opportunity.  When societies are forced to confront great change, some wilt, while others rise to the occasion.  America has been blessed with rare resilience.  Our nation is unique in human history because it is predicated on the still revolutionary principle that legitimate political power originates with the people.  We do not look to kings to tell us what we may or may not do.  As our rights come directly from God, aristocrats just get in the way.  Our institutions matter not because they are invested with power over us, but rather because we have lent those institutions some of our inherent powers so that they can properly defend our inherent rights.  Neither presidents nor congresses nor corporations can grant us what is already ours.

It is with this understanding of our natural rights in mind that I encourage everyone to protect those rights personally.  Read, learn, debate, and most importantly don’t give up just because giving up is in fashion these days.  This country has been through far worse and survived.  People who tell you that this is the end for America have a vested interest in seeing America end.  Those stubborn enough to resist will ensure that our country lives.

To be sure, we deserve more than slogans, propaganda, and memes.  We deserve civic leaders who can speak in complete sentences.  We deserve members of Congress who can introduce cogent arguments — supported by salient facts and not calumnies, falsehoods, or red herrings.  We deserve a new generation of leaders who remind us of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, and George Washington.  Perhaps they already move among us.

Do not mistake division for disease.  Division is the engine that often spawns greatness.  What we require is discernment.  We require wisdom.  We require courage.  We require leadership.  We require renewed faith in God’s grace.  These are not always in abundant supply.  But they are very American things.

GFK