Analytics

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Post #7222 M: Scott Horton : Can Trump Bring Peace to Ukraine? ; Most Insightful TikTok Reactor; Elon Musk TORCHES ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill, MOURNS the Fall of DOGE

 Quote of the Day

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, 
it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.
Isaac Newton  

Scott Horton : Can Trump Bring Peace to Ukraine?

Most Insightful TikTok Reactor


Elon Musk TORCHES ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill, MOURNS the Fall of DOGE

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Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

You Talk Too Much - Joe Jones

Friday, May 30, 2025

Post #7221 M: McClanahan on The Return of Gentlemen; Kibbe on Big, Beautiful Bill or Bloated Budget Boondoggle? ; America Has a Self-Deportation Option

 Quote of the Day

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. 
But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
Mark Twain  

McClanahan on The Return of Gentlemen

Kibbe on Big, Beautiful Bill or Bloated Budget Boondoggle?

America Has a Self-Deportation Option

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Political Cartoon

 Courtesy of Jon Russo via Townhall


Musical Interlude:  1960 Top 100 Hits

Annette Funicello "O Dio Mio"

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Post #7220 M: McClanahan on Canada Secession? ; Tariffs, Emergencies, and Presidential Power; The Courts vs. the Presidency: America's Separation of Powers Crisis

 Quote of the Day

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson  

McClanahan on Canada Secession?


Tariffs, Emergencies, and Presidential Power

The Courts vs. the Presidency: America's Separation of Powers Crisis

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Bob Rogers via Smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Johnny Tillotson - Poetry In Motion

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Post #7219 M: McClanahan on Do Conservatives Want a Dictator? ; Stossel on Inside North Korea; The Revisionist Economic History of the Civil War

 Quote of the Day

When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, 
shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, 
it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another. 

Thomas Jefferson,  

McClanahan on Do Conservatives Want a Dictator?

Stossel on Inside North Korea

The Revisionist Economic History of the Civil War

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Political Cartoon




Courtesy of Steve Kelley via Townhall

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Johnny Burnette - Dreamin`

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Post #7218 M: What the New Right Gets Right—and Wrong—About Free Trade; McClanahan on The Calamity of Appomattox; Trump vs the Military

 Quote of the Day

Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger 
than any material force.
Ralph Waldo Emerson  

What the New Right Gets Right—and Wrong—About Free Trade

McClanahan on The Calamity of Appomattox

Trump vs the Military

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Margolis & Cox via Townhall

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Ricky Nelson~Young Emotions

Monday, May 26, 2025

Post #7217 M: The Triumph of Economic Freedom | Mark Thornton; McClanahan on Affirmative Action for Conservatives? ; What Happens to Your Kids if they Abolish the Department of Education?

 Quote of the Day

Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people 
as the best means of preserving our liberties.
James Monroe  

The Triumph of Economic Freedom | Mark Thornton

McClanahan on Affirmative Action for Conservatives?

What Happens to Your Kids if they Abolish the Department of Education?

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Steve Kelley via Townhall


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Paul Evans - Happy Go Lucky Me

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Post #7216 M:Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Passes House; McClanahan on Nottoway is No More; Judges STRIKE DOWN every TRUMP order

 Quote of the Day

If a man be gracious to strangers, 
it shows that he is a citizen of the world, 
and his heart is no island, 
cut off from other islands, 
but a continent that joins them.
Francis Bacon

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Passes House

McClanahan on Nottoway is No More

Judges STRIKE DOWN every TRUMP order

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Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

The Crests - Step By Step

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Post #7215 M: Trump Blasts South Africa for “White Genocide”; SOHO Debate: Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh debate immigration; Dumb BLEEP of the Week

 Quote of the Day

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, 
and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust. 
Samuel Johnson  

Trump Blasts South Africa for “White Genocide” 

SOHO Debate: Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh debate immigration

Dumb BLEEP of the Week

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Bob Rogers via smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Lloyd Price Lady Luck

Friday, May 23, 2025

Post #7214 M: McClanahan on Will This Conservative Legal Doctrine Undo Trump’s First Months in Office? ; What Happened to American Conservatism?

Quote of the Day

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
Albert Einstein  

 McClanahan on Will This Conservative Legal Doctrine Undo Trump’s First Months in Office?


What Happened to American Conservatism?

Game Wardens Caught Trespassing on Land

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Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Al Goodwin via Townhall


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Tracy’s Theme - Spencer Ross

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Post #7213 M: CNN’s “Bombshell” Biden Book; WHlTE South African Refugees ??? ; McClanahan on John Yoo and the Lincoln Cult

 Quote of the Day

In the depth of winter, 
I finally learned that within me 
there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus  

CNN’s “Bombshell” Biden Book

WHlTE South African Refugees ???

McClanahan on John Yoo and the Lincoln Cult

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Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Sam Cooke - What A Wonderful World

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Post #7212 M: Weekend Update; McClanahan on Are Trump's Tariffs Legal? ; Why Judges (Usually) Side With the Government

 Quote of the Day

Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, 
but in ourselves are triumph and defeat. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  

Weekend Update

McClanahan on Are Trump's Tariffs Legal?


Why Judges (Usually) Side With the Government

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Bob Rogers via smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Skip & Flip - Cherry Pie

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Post #7211 M: Trump Middle East Trip Cold Open; Feds' Surveillance SCANDAL: "Cash Me if You Can"; Stossel on Mowing Your Lawn

 Quote of the Day

You don't get harmony
when everybody sings the same note.
Doug Floyd  

Trump Middle East Trip Cold Open

Feds' Surveillance SCANDAL: "Cash Me if You Can"

Stossel on Mowing Your Lawn

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind 

Monday, May 19, 2025

Post #7210 M: Dumb BLEEP of the Week; False Virtue: The Phony Rationale for American Military Imperialism | Tom DiLorenzo

 Quote of the Day

You can easily judge the character of others 
by how they treat those who can do 
nothing for them or to them.
Malcolm Forbes  

Dumb BLEEP of the Week

False Virtue: The Phony Rationale for American Military Imperialism | Tom DiLorenzo

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Paul Anka, "My Home Town"

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Post #7209 M: Desi Lydic Foxsplains Trump's Qatari Plane Gift; Indian Meme Accounts- #1 National Security Threat; McClanahan on Trump v. FDR

 Quote of the Day

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading 
as a contest of principles.
Ambrose Bierce  

Desi Lydic Foxsplains Trump's Qatari Plane Gift

Indian Meme Accounts- #1 National Security Threat

McClanahan on Trump v. FDR

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Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Neil Sedaka - Stairway To Heaven

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Post #7208 M: Trump Greeted By Sword Dancers in Qatar & RFK Jr. Swims Up S**t Creek; Government Makes Healthcare Worse; McClanahan on Lincoln v. Trump....Again

 Quote of the Day

Facts are facts and will not disappear 
on account of your likes.
Jawaharlal Nehru  

Trump Greeted By Sword Dancers in Qatar & RFK Jr. Swims Up S**t Creek

Government Makes Healthcare Worse

McClanahan on Lincoln v. Trump....Again 

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Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits 

Brook Benton & Dinah Washington -- A Rockin' Good Way

Friday, May 16, 2025

Post #7207 M: Saudi Arabia Gives Trump the Royal Treatment With McDonald's & a Mid-Meeting Nap; Da Chicago Style Pope; McClanahan on Richard Weaver's South

 Quote of the Day

We come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. 
May we so live that we go out of this world smiling 
while everybody around us is weeping. 
Persian proverb 

Saudi Arabia Gives Trump the Royal Treatment With McDonald's & a Mid-Meeting Nap

Da Chicago Style Pope

McClanahan on Richard Weaver's South

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Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Bobby Rydell - Swinging School 

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Post #7206 M: Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe; The Hidden Ideology Behind Trump’s Big Pharma Policy; Stossel on Trump’s Tariffs will Cost Jobs and Raise Prices for Everyone

 Quote of the Day

When the Japanese mend broken objects, 
they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. 
They believe that when something's suffered damage 
and has a history it becomes more beautiful.
Barbara Bloom

Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe

The Hidden Ideology Behind Trump’s Big Pharma Policy

Stossel on Trump’s Tariffs will Cost Jobs and Raise Prices for Everyone

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Political Cartoon


Courtesy of Jack Ohman via smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Among My Souvenirs-Connie Francis

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Post #7205 J

 Pandemic Report

The most recent weekly CDC stats:



We continue to see key indicators level off nationally although people continue to be hospitalized and/or die. It's a different story in SE Asia where infections have been rising. In the US we continue to see a right-wing. anti COVID policy/populist backlash with high-profile skeptics being appointed in the Trump Administration, lawsuits, dubious quack drug legalizations. mandate repeals, etc.

News items of note include:
  • [Against the lab leak hypothesis] “At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,” Wertheim said. “This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.” The ancestor of the virus that causes COVID-19 left its point of origin in Western China or Northern Laos just several years before the disease first emerged in humans up to 2,700 kilometers away in Central China, according to a new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues. That’s not enough time for the evolving virus to have been carried there via the natural dispersal of its primary host, the horseshoe bat. This has led the researchers to conclude that it instead hitched a ride there with other animals via the wildlife trade, consistent with what happened during the SARS outbreak in 2002. The study was published in Cell on May 7, 2025. Horseshoe bats are the main hosts of sarbecoviruses. These viruses don’t harm the bats, but are thought to have made the leap to humans through “zoonotic spillover” events. Sarbecoviruses gave rise to severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1, the strain that caused the SARS pandemic of 2002-2004, and SARS-CoV-2, the strain that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic. How they got to the places where these events occurred and whether animals besides bats were involved has been a matter of ongoing debate, however. The researchers calculated that given the distances that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 would have had to cover so quickly, it is highly improbable that they could have been carried there via bat dispersal. Much more likely: they were transported there accidentally by wild animal traders via intermediate hosts. In fact, previous studies have suggested that SARS-CoV-1 was likely carried from Yunnan Province in Western China to Guangdong Province by infected palm civets or raccoon dogs — animals commonly traded for their fur and meat. However, the current study provides the strongest evidence to date that SARS-CoV-2 made it to humans in a similar manner.“The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,” said co-senior author Michael Worobey, Ph.D., professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona. For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We’re seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.”
  • "New research links long COVID to worse health-related quality of life"
  • "Discovery may explain why more men are affected by severe COVID-19"
  • "New AI tool predicts viral mutations to help future-proof COVID vaccines"
  • "Scientists link specific gene variants to post-vaccine myocarditis and pericarditis"
  • "COVID before or during pregnancy may confer 2 to 3 times the risk of miscarriage"
  • "Study shows COVID-19 vaccines are not linked to miscarriage"
  • "Clinical trial finds faster recovery from COVID-19 through targeted use of high-dose vitamin B3 in the gut"
  • "Study suggest  [Moderna] dual COVID-19/flu shot is more effective than individual vaccines"
  • Prosecution of COVID relief fraud or other crimes continues:
    • "KC woman pleads guilty to COVID-19 fraud, treasury check theft totaling millions"
    • "Raleigh County Man Admits to Stealing Over $2.1M in COVID-19 Relief Funds"
    • "Zebulon woman sentenced 8 eight years for multi-million COVID-19 fraud scheme"
    • "COVID-19 $1.5M fraud scheme leads to prison time for 2 North Carolina women: DOJ"
  • Legal or political developments relevant to COVID continue:
    • "University of Pittsburgh reaches multi-million-dollar settlement in Covid-era class action lawsuit"
    • "Why a major hydroxychloroquine study was retracted over statistical misuse"
    • "COVID-19 probe requested by Florida Gov. DeSantis finds no evidence of criminal activity"
    • "Vinay Prasad, a critic of drug industry and COVID-19 measures, to lead FDA vaccine program"
    • "Appeals court sides with Celebrity Cruises in COVID-19 ‘false imprisonment' case"
    • "Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit. Judges revive lawsuit against L.A. Unified"
    • "NC House votes to make it easier to get ivermectin, reigniting COVID controversy"

Other Notes

The blog is still attracting a dubiously high number of pageviews, although it doesn't show up in the short run for daily posts, struggling to reach double digits. My typing is slower and I haven't published at my pre-interlude clip; I used to publish my media digest and journal posts every weekend. I may return to that pace soon. On X, no high-impression tweets lately but I did reach 100 followers for the the  first time. I promptly lost 4, only to regain replacements. I am annoyed at my feed being flooded with Trumpkin posts.

A personal pet peeve: the excommunication of sports heroes who have allegedly engaged in unconscionable behavior. Probably the most obvious example is late WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. who killed his family in a murder/suicide. WWE over the last 18 years has basically censored references to Benoit in programming. I'm not excusing Benoit's crimes, but those are separate from his work as an entertainer. I don't believe a definitive explanation has explained his crimes: steroids? Brain injuries? Some details lead me to suspect mental illness. It's not the only example. Icon Hulk Hogan is highly unpopular in the aftermath of alleged racist behavior.

What brings this to mind is the posthumous reinstatement of Shoeless Joe Jackson, implicated in the 1919 Black Sox betting scandal, and Pete Rose, suspended for betting on games as a manager. There is no evidence that the betting scandal ever affected the play on the diamond. Hopefully they'll finally be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Post #7204 M: Tom DiLorenzo: Public Enemies: Government Bureaucrats as Societal Parasites; Weekend Update; 10 Facts about TARIFFS

 Quote of the Day

Pay no attention to what the critics say... 
Remember, a statue has never been set 
up in honor of a critic! 
Jean Sibelius  

Tom DiLorenzo: Public Enemies: Government Bureaucrats as Societal Parasites

Weekend Update

10 Facts about TARIFFS

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Political Cartoon




Courtesy of Steve Breen via Smerconish


Musical Interlude: 1960 Top 100 Hits

Fats Domino - Walking to New Orleans

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Post #7203 M: Political Humor; Cardinal in Conclave Says THIS Led to Pope Leo XIV’s Election; Stossel on Publicity Kills DEI

 Quote of the Day

Every truth has four corners: 
as a teacher I give you one corner, 
and it is for you to find the other three.
Confucius

Political Humor

Cardinal in Conclave Says THIS Led to Pope Leo XIV’s Election


Stossel on Publicity Kills DEI

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Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Tom Stiglich via Townhall

Musical Interlude:  1960 Top 100 Hits

Brenda Lee -- That's All You Gotta Do

Monday, May 12, 2025

Post #7202 Social Media Digest

 Twitter/X

No. Rand Paul has been for free trade from the get-go as a fellow libertarian. In fact. the GOP had been pro-free trade since WWII through George W. Bush. Protectionism is bad economics. https://t.co/lvEuMeQb4P

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 2, 2025
blockquote class="twitter-tweet">

Well, Trumpkins are lying; consumers pay tariffs, not foreign governments. What the trade warriors seem to suggest is that prices may not rise to the full amount of tariffs in a competitive marketplace; foreign producers may cut prices ("eat the tariffs") to protect market share https://t.co/TNZCjfVLJo

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 2, 2025 er-tweet">

Manipulated "fair" trade is toxic to consumers; it schemes to lower competition for goods and services. It doesn't help American producers to contain costs/hold down prices.

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) April 30, 2025 ">

The Chinese graduate a multiple of new American engineers.

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 1, 2025 ' .com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">






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Just wait until Trumpkins discover pro-life Pope Leo XIV is a registered Republican but a fellow Trump critic who has notably condemned Trump's illegal deportation of Garcia. I can already hear anti-Catholic Trumpkins adding "RINO" to the pope's titles.https://t.co/xZDXCQUjPj

— raguillemette (@raguillemette) May 9, 2025