Month: February 2024

A young woman, Laken Riley, was murdered in Athens, Georgia by an illegal immigrant. She is just the latest victim of a continuing slew of crimes by young males who should never have been allowed across our border. The Venezuelan accused of murdering her had been arrested previously in New York but instead of being jailed or deported he was set free.

Don’t blame the Border Patrol. They catch about a thousand known criminals a month. But they are overwhelmed by the vast numbers the Mexican cartels send to the border. This has allowed many thousands with criminal records in their home country to avoid capture. They are roaming free across the country. Also, include all the Americans killed by fentanyl from China and victims of robberies and other crimes committed by foreign gang members.

Illegal immigration is ten times worse in the last 3 years. Don’t let anyone tell you that only “comprehensive” immigration reform passed by Congress can stop it. President Biden could halt 90% of illegal border crossings tomorrow with an Executive Order and a few phone calls.

A longtime friend sent me a message last week with an intriguing “thought experiment.”  We often disagree on politics but since he is ten times wiser than I am, I always listen to him. Suppose former President Trump is convicted in one of the four trials and forced to drop out. And Biden is pressured to drop out and let Kamala Harris become the candidate for President.

Here is my friend’s suggestion, “The Republicans would put up a ticket of Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney. And Kamala Harris would pick Amy Klobuchar as her running mate.” Yes, four women. Both candidates for President have immigrant parents.

Well, let’s have some fun with this. Nikki gets her wish to debate Kamala. Should be fierce disagreement on illegal immigration. They might agree on aid for Ukraine, but not for Israel. The V-P debates would be boring. Every time Amy said something against Trump and most Republicans, Liz would agree with her.

So, how would the 2024 election turn out? Let me go back to 2020 for a moment. Since Joe Biden was committed to selecting a female V-P, Senator Klobuchar would have been a better choice than Senator Harris. That said, I think the Harris-Klobuchar pair would win. Haley-Cheney would get the fewest Republican votes in any Presidential race in 30 years because Trump supporters would stay home. Both the House and Senate would have a Democrat majority.

Now, don’t take any of this serious. This may sound far-fetched but don’t bet against the idea of having four well-qualified women in these roles within 12 to 20 years.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

       “Women promised us that if they had the vote, they’d clean up politics.   They did; they got in and cleaned up more than the men did. They admit themselves that about all they have added to the whole voting and political thing is just more votes or more bookkeeping. But it ain’t the women’s fault. Politics is bigger than any race and it’s bigger than any sex.” Radio, June 2, 1935

George Washington was born on Feb. 22, 1732. As Will Rogers wrote, “Washington was the most versatile President we ever had. He was a farmer, Civil engineer and gentleman. He made enough at Civil engineering [surveying] to indulge in both the other luxuries.” (WA #313, Dec. 23, 1928)

His birthday is so important in history that two great organizations celebrate all week.

Professional engineers celebrate National Engineers Week. This week is about celebrating past and present achievements and paving the way for a brighter future.

You know about the importance of “STEM” in education. The “E” stands for Engineering. Students who graduate with an engineering degree usually don’t have to worry about finding a job or repaying student debt. Engineers are in demand. (Personal note: I’m proud of a son who is an engineer and a granddaughter who will be one in 2025. A few years ago, I headed up a national 4-H program to encourage more young girls, minorities and rural youth to study engineering.)

This is also National FFA Week. You may have known “FFA” as Future Farmers of America. FFA prepares youth for a wide range of occupations in agriculture and food and fiber businesses. FFA is not limited to the 2% of the population on farms and ranches. My brother was in FFA and I have many friends who were state and national FFA officers. (See quote below.)

One person not celebrating is former President Donald Trump. The Attorney General of New York state and a Judge found the Trump family business guilty of fraud and fined them over $350,000,000. Recall that in 2018, the Attorney General campaigned on one promise: Bring down Trump.

You might be wondering who gets the money in this fraud case. Do the banks who were defrauded receive it because Trump over valued his real estate? NO. The banks didn’t lose money; they made millions in interest on loans. Do defrauded employees of the Trump business receive it? NO. They were paid in full, even during the COVID-19 shutdown. Oddly, this may be the first fraud case in history with no fraud.

Barring a successful appeal, I guess the state of New York treasury will receive the money. They need it to cover costs of illegal immigrants and organized crime in their sanctuary cities. The state may soon lose Billions as other New York businesses decide to fold up and leave for fear of being convicted of fraud.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

         “Last week when I was there [in Kansas City], there was 1700 young boys and girls brought there by that great Paper, the Kansas City Star, from over 30 states. They were taking vocational training [FFA] and had led their various districts back home in the studying of farming and stock raising.” WA #207, Nov. 28, 1926

In the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in Overtime, 25-22. It was a battle of great defenses and field goals (7 total, with 3 from more than 50 years). Patrick Mahomes won it with a touchdown pass after the 49ers had kicked a field goal.

Probably, the best-known and most popular fan at the game was Taylor Swift who was there to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce. A poll had asked, “What is your #1 reason for watching the Super Bowl?” The results:
A. See the 49ers play the Chiefs — 102,000,000 viewers
B. Watch the commercials and half-time show — 85,700,000
C.  Catch brief glimpses of Taylor Swift — 198,900,000.

Ok, I made up the poll. No doubt, there were millions of Swifties watching, and they caught the meaning of the number above.

CBS had a show this week about the most popular commercials during Super Bowl games. I only saw the end of it. The top two ranked commercials were for a beer and a soft drink. Nothing against those, but I think the all-time best commercial was for a farmer. Yes, you remember it. Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer,” sponsored by Dodge Ram in 2013. There were plenty of creative commercials tonight, but that is still #1.

I decided last week that I have joked about President Biden enough and I’ll leave him alone for a while. I had good intentions, but he had a rough week.

A bombshell report came out about the top secret classified documents Joe Biden had taken willfully (and illegally) during his many years as a Senator, from 1973-2009, then as Vice-President from 2009-2017. Photos showed old cardboard boxes strewn about his cluttered garage where there was barely room left for his antique Corvette. These are documents that only one person in the whole world has the right to remove from the secure location in the Capitol, and that is the President at the time. Not a Senator, not a V-P, or any other official.

But even that damning evidence got overshadowed by a decision by Department of Justice investigator, Robert Hur. President Biden will not be indicted to stand trial because he is a “sympathetic, elderly man with a poor memory,” and jurors would feel sorry for him.

Now I don’t know about you, but if I was accused today of robbing a bank twenty years ago, I would prefer to have the prosecutor indict me instead of announcing that I’m too deteriorated mentally to stand trial. And to be fair, there are thousands of us old men with a poor memory, but we’re not wanting to run a country for five more years.

After the Attorney General released Robert Hur’s report, President Biden felt compelled to hold a televised news conference to rebut the accusations of his mental decline. Unfortunately, in his comments and responses to questions he mixed up Mexico and Egypt and forgot the name of a Catholic church. He talked about his role in getting food into Gaza while criticizing Israel’s attempt to eliminate Hamas as “over the top.” And he did not mention the 1200 people that Hamas terrorists slaughtered in Israel on October 7, or the ~130 hostages they still hold.

This time, I promise. No mention of President Biden next week. Barring another calamity.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“I used to play me a pretty good end, that is a substitute end [at Kemper Military Academy]. I played what you might call a ‘Wide End.’ I would play out so far that the other 21 would be pretty well piled up before I could possibly reach ’em.” WA #627, Dec. 30, 1934

Two weeks ago I asked, why is President Biden scared of Iran? We still don’t know. After Iran-backed terrorists killed 3 of our soldiers, he gave Iran 5 days to clear out their Generals and other Iranians from about a hundred locations where Biden said we would bomb. Then he sent two B-1 stealth bombers from Texas to Syria to destroy 3 empty houses. Yes, those planes and others destroyed many structures. Apparently, a few Iraqis died, but, surprise! no Iranians were killed by our bombs and missiles.

Just imagine if Joe Biden had been elected president in 1860 instead of Lincoln. He would have sent a secret note to Confederate General Robert E. Lee warning him to go no farther north than Virginia. Then after seeing the Confederate Army marching toward Gettysburg, another warning note, “General Lee, don’t go any farther into Pennsylvania. DON’T. But if you do feel the need to take Pennsylvania, I’m warning you, if you get as far north as Buffalo, I really mean it, we might start shooting.”

President Biden clearly does not want to risk escalating a “conflict” into a war with Iran. Perhaps the Biden Administration should send this friendly note to the Iranian leaders, “We have no intention of escalating this conflict. No sir, this conflict will not escalate. It will END. Either you end it immediately by withdrawing all support and weapons from your terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, or we will END it. The END will start with you and your Generals. We know where you live. This tape will self-destruct in 10 seconds.”

In other news, have you read this story in the newspaper? Imagine living in a place where this is allowed: Two law enforcement officers try to intercede in an argument and get attacked by a half dozen young men. They finally subdue and arrest five, take ‘em to jail, and a prosecutor lets them go without paying any bail. It turns out they were in the country illegally so they should have been jailed and then deported. To make matters worse they stole IDs, and talked an official into buying them tickets to go clear across the country, probably disappearing forever.

Now if you guessed this happened in some backward nation where laws are seldom enforced, and police are disrespected and forced to accept being slugged, stomped on, kicked in the head, and doused with buckets of filthy water you would be thinking logically. The only problem is this place with no common sense is… New York City, a so-called sanctuary city where illegal immigrants can commit crimes and still receive free food and a hotel room. Oh, and free health care, which is important if they accidentally get injured while fighting a cop, hijacking a car, or robbing a store. Fortunately, most of the US is not like NYC. In any small town out in the country, if a hoodlum attacks a Deputy Sheriff, he’ll likely get shot.

South Carolina held an election on Saturday. President Joe Biden got 96% of the vote, routing two other candidates. Almost immediately he received congratulatory phone calls from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. They both had the same question, “How did you get 96%?” They usually get around 90%, so they are envious of their friend Joe for getting so close to 100%.

How did the President get 96% of the votes in the South Carolina Democratic Primary? It must be because they are thrilled with the roaring economy, they all have full time jobs with high wages, their costs for essentials (food, gasoline, electricity, and insurance) are low and going lower, and they live in friendly neighborhoods with no crime. Visiting all 46 counties, getting to know the voters, answering their questions, kissing babies… if President Biden had done any of these he might’ve hit 99%.

Now who’s concerned about the end of democracy?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “There’s one thing no nation can accuse us of, and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign dealings are an open book, generally a check book.” WA #45, Oct. 21, 1923

          “The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.” WA #63, Feb. 24, 1924

Here’s one response from last week. Kathy wrote, “How ignorant we are when we don’t know history.”