Month: March 2025

Democrats and comedians are having a field day with jokes and accusations over a bungled phone call among Trump’s top officials.

President Trump said it was a mistake to use Signal, which allowed a reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, to get added to the call. It’s easy to criticize Goldberg for not alerting the top officials, “Hey guys, you’re using I-phones to discuss attacking Houthis. Maybe you need a more secure communication system.”

Some of us are old enough to remember “party line” phones. Maybe ten families on the same line. Each had their own number, such as 3 short rings and 2 longs, but conversations were open to all. If you picked up the phone and two people were talking, you would usually hang up. But, if a young guy was chatting about intimate plans with his girlfriend, would you hang up or keep listening?

This controversy is about the call, not about the attack on the Iran-backed terrorist Houthis in Yemen. It was successful. Probably more attacks will be needed to knock out the Houthis. I doubt the planning will be on Signal.

Closer to home, what do you know about Greenland? Other than it is not green. Did any President before Trump ever mention Greenland? Greenland is three times bigger than Texas and reaches almost to the North Pole. If you have a World Globe, look down on it. You’ll see the Russian Border on the Arctic Ocean is also close and stretches across 9 of the 24 time zones. Unlike the South Pole, the North Pole has no land. There’s no Santa land with grass for reindeer, only ice and snow. Submarines can zip below the surface, moving along the coasts of Russia, Finland, Greenland, Canada and Alaska.

China has eyed the Arctic Ocean for years, mainly for the wealth of minerals under it. They plan to use Greenland as their Arctic base. We need to get there first.

Here’s my plan to win over the 55,000 Greenlanders. Offer them a reward if they declare their independence from Denmark and vote to become a Territory of the US. That would make them similar to Guam and the Virgin Islands.

So, what’s their reward? Every voter would receive $500,000. Plus, divided evenly among them, they would receive 5% of all revenue from minerals we extract in the next 30 years.

Yesterday, Elon Musk haters across the country protested against Tesla. A few protested by trading their Tesla for a Chevy or Ford. Other protesters set Teslas on fire, but never their own. Ironically, most of the young protesters or their families own a piece of Tesla. They claim to hate gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles, but protest an EV built entirely in the US by American workers.

I guess with 330 million people, we’re always stuck with our share of nuts. Protests are against reducing fraud and waste in government programs. Several want illegal immigrants to be declared legal. Even a federal judge wants El Salvador to return the notorious MS-13 and Venezuelan gang members to walk in freedom on our streets. Students at elite universities protest against other students and demand the administrators divest stocks that help pay their scholarships and fees. Are these universities offering degrees in professional protesting?

Elon Musk and his DOGE crew have been rough on NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). Many NGOs have been thriving on our tax dollars. Regardless of the value of the services, no organization claiming to be “non-government” should receive any government funds. If they want to live off the generosity of Congress and bureaucrats in DC, they should be called an FFO (Federally Funded Organization).

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“We say our government is nutty…  that it’s throwing away money.   But anytime any is thrown our way, why we’ve never dodged it.” Radio, Apr. 7, 1935

President Trump wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. If you look at the decline of student scores compared to other nations, and the huge increase in college tuition, you might find it hard to defend the 46-year record of the department.

Interestingly, a former Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, said today that students did better with McGuffey’s Reader than with current methods of teaching them how to read. That reference to McGuffey’s Reader got my attention.

When Will Rogers was 8, he attended Drumgoole School. It had books “such as Ray’s Arithmetic, and McGuffey 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Readers. We had even a Geography around there but we just used it for the pictures of the cattle grazing in the Argentine and the wolves attacking the sleighs in Russia.” (WA #353, Sept. 29, 1929)

“In 1898 Kemper Military School was not being run in accordance with the standards that I thought befitting a growing intellect… I not only left them flat during a dark night, but I quit the entire school business for life.” WA #169, March 7, 1926

Will joked that he “spent ten years in McGuffey’s 4^th Reader. I knew more about McGuffey’s 4^th than McGuffey.”

This is not the first (or only) time our education system has been sharply criticized. In 1932, Will wrote an entire Weekly Article on deficiencies, especially in colleges. Here are a few key points:

“This modern education gag has sure got me licked… All the kids I know, none of ’em can write so you can read it, none of ’em can spell so you can read it. They can’t figure and don’t know geography, but they are always taking some of the darndest things, political science, international relations, drama, buck dancing, sociology, Latin, and Greek art… but none of ’em that I have seen can write, spell, figure, or tell what bounds Korea…. Course you can’t go out and get a job on [a degree in Latin], but these old professors value it mighty highly. Some of these days they are going to remove so much of the ‘punk and Hooey’ and the thousands of things that the schools have become clogged up with, and we will find that we can educate our broods for about one-tenth the price and learn ’em something they might accidentally use after they escaped… This education is just like everything else. You’ve got to judge it by results. Here we are better educated, according to educational methods, than we ever were. And we are worse off than we ever were, so it’s not living up to its billing…. It’s costing us more than it’s worth. They’ve got to devise some way of giving more for the money.” WA #501, July 31, 1932

Most of the money for public education, about 90% of it, is from local and state taxes. If the federal government delivers the current budget for Education to the states and local school districts, minus the regulations and paperwork, maybe scores will improve.

You may know I come from a family of teachers. And a cousin just graduated and immediately started teaching 5^th grade. Total support and encouragement from parents and the community can help students as much or more than an increased budget. And discipline. No more lame excuses for skipping school or misbehaving.

To help with reading scores, bring back McGuffey’s Readers, now available online. The first lesson in the First Reader is ‘A is for Ax,’ which is what Trump wants Congress to do to the Department of Education.

Are you in favor of eliminating the portion of your tax dollars spent on wasteful programs and fraudulent people? Were you glad the federal government shutdown was avoided on Friday?

You might be surprised to hear the strong views of some prominent folks in Washington. Names you know well (Schumer, Pelosi, Obama, Biden) all wanted to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse a few years ago. But now they want the fraudulent payments and wasteful spending to continue.

It seems that Republicans and Democrats have their own definitions. What’s trash to one is a treasure to the other. And they only want to toss out the trash if they get the credit.

Concerning government shutdowns, our top Democrats were always against them. But last week they were for it. Except Senator Schumer of New York who switched his vote. That made his Democrat colleagues mad. They are going so far, to such a calamitous conclusion, they want to replace him with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is best known for a lack of economic common sense because she single-handedly kept Amazon from building in her district and offering high wages to 25,000 of her constituents.

So, the only part of government that shut down is what Elon Musk and President Trump have shut down or reduced. They are getting complaints for “cutting Social Security and Medicare.” What’s the complaint? They are canceling Social Security numbers for people who are 120 to 150 years old.

Anyone who is retired or close to it is well aware that both of these funds are at risk of running out of money in 10 to 15 years. If Elon Musk and his computer sleuths can eliminate, say, 10% of fraudulent payments, and streamline operations to reduce employees, these funds will last a few years longer.

Here is another vote in the House of Representatives that might upset you. Democrats voted for a tax increase of $4 Trillion. If it had passed, it would have increased the income tax for the average family more than $2000 a year.

Have you heard about former New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo? He was forced to resign after spending $60,000,000 in tax dollars for his defense, but now he is the leading candidate for Mayor of New York City. His decisions on Covid 19 were terrible. He sent patients with Covid to nursing homes to recover, which resulted in spreading the disease and killing hundreds of old folks.

And in California, Governor Newsom is running for President in 2028. He wants voters in the other 49 states to forget he flaunted his own rules during Covid, supported a state law that raised the price of pork and chicken for all of us, and insists that excess water in northern California flows into the ocean instead of piping it to southern CA where they need it to irrigate crops and fight fires.

Both Cuomo and Newsom are counting on the voters’ poor memory for their political future. As Will Rogers wrote, “Many a public man wishes there was a law to burn old records.” (DT #627, July 30, 1928)

Dust storms, tornadoes, high winds, and wildfires are causing havoc across the country. During the Dust Bowl in 1934 and 1935, blowing soil from tilled ground in the southern Great Plains reached Washington, DC. Last week, dust from tilled farm fields in New Mexico and Texas blew all the way to Ohio and Pennsylvania. On Friday, blowing topsoil along the Colorado-Kansas border caused 71 vehicles to crash on I-70, killing eight people. As Will Rogers wrote exactly 90 years ago, “(This dust is) a terrible thing, and it’s going to bring up some queer cases in law. If Colorado blows over and lights on top of Kansas, it looks kinder like Kansas ought to pay for the extra topsoil, but Kansas can sue ’em for covering up their crops.” (DT #2697, March 28, 1935) This time it might be victims of the I-70 crash that sue the farmers for plowing instead of leaving crop residue and/or planting winter wheat or a cover crop to prevent wind erosion.

Wildfires burned dozens of homes in Stillwater, Oklahoma. And tornadoes in eight states have killed at least 40.

Tomorrow, St. Patrick’s Day, is special for our family because my dad, W. Howard Reeder, was born on March 17, 1918. He celebrated 99 birthdays. Part of our family enjoyed the Irish Spring Festival in Ireland this week.

Ok, this Ireland is a small community in West Virginia, not the Ireland that Rosie O’Donell moved to.

Has common horse sense left the barn? Or only Washington, DC?

First, it’s Congress. We know those folks are skilled persuasive speakers. And they do a fair amount of listening to their voters, and especially to donors and lobbyists. But when it comes to entertaining…, they should hire a stand-in.

The Academy Awards were last Sunday and that must have inspired them to try out for a part in a movie. Have you seen the leaked video with 25 men and women in Congress? They must have brought in a famous Director to supervise.

She lined ‘em up and gave them the lines to memorize. She coached them, telling them which words to emphasize, proper gestures, and to speak emphatically, with harsh emotion. Frown, don’t dare smile. Here is the script: “Since day one of Donald Trump’s presidency, prices are up, not down. Inflation is getting worse, not better. Prices of groceries, gas, housing, rent, eggs – they’re all getting more expensive. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has done nothing to lower costs for you.”

Most did it marvelously in one take. They have been talking with that attitude for a few years so it comes natural to them. To see who succeeded, we’ll have to wait till the next Academy Awards, or the next election.

A few other Congressional Democrats tried singing. Oh my. They wouldn’t last ten seconds on “America’s Got Talent.” Or the “Gong Show.” Then a few of the women did videos pretending to fight like Mohamed Ali. Do you remember, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee?”

Now, it may have been a reasonable goal for the Biden Administration to selectively hire to reflect the overall population. But when it comes to singing and dancing, we don’t want the “average” American. For singing, we prefer Larry Gatlin or Patti Page. For dancing, how about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (no relation to Will). And there’s only one Mohamed Ali.

That’s just my opinion. If you like your singing and dancing a little off kilter, that’s alright with me.

Speaking of off kilter, next we come to President Trump. Despite his popular speech to Congress, a lot of folks think his tariffs and Russia policy are plum nutty.

Trump claims the announced tariffs against Mexico and Canada are only to force them to keep fentanyl from crossing our borders. But many Americans are more concerned about the higher price of lumber and tomatoes that cross our borders.  And a lot of Canadians are mad they can’t buy Kentucky bourbon.

But then President Trump kinda turns around and says, “Tariffs will bring in Billions of dollars.” He also says tariffs will cause foreign manufacturers to move here and our own companies will bring all of their manufacturing and suppliers back to the states. Several companies have already announced the desired moves. Maybe eventually the net effect will be more taxes and a balanced budget. But it is frustrating to a lot of the country that’s concerned about the short term.

Is it smart to fire whole groups of federal employees and programs rather than pick off the ones that are wasting our tax dollars and running up the debt? Especially when you have to rehire the ones doing critical work.

Of course they will say, “Well, you tried picking one at a time for decades, and it never worked. This way, we got their attention.”

On another issue, do you think Will Rogers would have supported men in women’s sports? Will was a strong supporter of female athletes. For example, Babe Didrikson Zaharias in the 1932 Olympics (track and field) and golf; Gertrude Ederle, English Channel swimmer; and Annie Oakley, sharpshooter. Since 1972 females in high school and college have had their own sports. And now, Democrats in Congress want to allow biological males to compete, and usually win, against the girls and young women.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.” DT #2377, March 16, 1934

“Magnus Johnston says he is ‘going to use common sense in the Senate.’ That’s what they all say when they start in. But if nobody don’t understand you, why, you naturally have to switch.” WA # 59, Jan. 27, 1924

“Gertrude Ederle (swam the English Channel)… England is trying to get in on the credit of it. They claim they furnished the land for her to land on, otherwise she would never have made it.” DT #10, Aug. 8, 1926

My main interest in Ukraine, months before Putin invaded, was its prime farmland. Ukraine has soil equal to our best farms in Iowa and Illinois. The productivity of this great soil is the reason Ukraine has been known as the “Breadbasket of Europe.”

You know that not all farmland is the same. That’s why a farm in Iowa can sell for $20,000 an acre and a farm with rocky, less productive soil is worth only $2000 an acre.

When we consider only the very best prime farmland in the world, we have roughly 20% of it, and Ukraine and Russia each have about 20%. Here is my question about Putin’s attempt to take over Ukraine: Do we want to let Putin control 40% of the best farmland in the world?

That brings me down to the meeting in the White House on Friday. Your opinion of the kerfuffle between Trump and Zelenskyy in the few minutes at the end of a 40-minute press conference is probably influenced by which news outlet you watch or read. Totally opposite views. It’s like one person standing in front of a Palomino horse admiring its beautiful mane and disposition, while another person is focused on the opposite end of a donkey.

Zelenskyy was not well prepared to meet President Trump. Before a public meeting, Zelenskyy should have asked, in private, this question: “How much of my country are you willing to give to the invader Putin?”

I don’t know what answer Trump would give. But any answer above zero would be unacceptable to Ukrainians. Zelenskyy could have followed up with this plea, “Putin already stole Crimea in 2014. He can keep it. But he has to leave 100% of our country he has occupied in 3 years, and pay for a good chunk of the damages. And return all the children he stole in the early months of the invasion. I am eternally grateful for the tremendous support from all Americans in defending our freedom. And I humbly ask for your help in negotiating with Putin to achieve these goals.”

I would like to see Trump’s reaction to that. And Putin’s.

The Academy Awards are on ABC tonight. In 1934, the Master of Ceremonies for the big dinner celebration was Will Rogers. Based on his notes, here are three comments in the opening monologue:

“(These statuettes) are lovely things. They were originally designed for prizes at a nudist’s colony bazaar, but they didn’t take ‘em. It must be terribly artistic, for nobody has any idea what it is. It represents the triumph of nothingness over the stupendousness of zero…

There is great acting in this room tonight, greater than you will see on the screen. We all cheer when somebody gets a prize that everyone of us in the house knows should be ours. Yet we smile and take it. Boy that’s acting! ….

I have never seen any of these pictures. They don’t look at mine and why should I go see theirs.” (Note that by 1934, Will was the highest-paid and most popular actor in Hollywood, yet he was never nominated for an Oscar.)

Will messed up announcing the best Director award. He casually announced, “Come up and get it, Frank!” But there were two nominees named Frank.  Frank Capra started walking to the front when Will realized his mistake and clarified the winner was Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade, (which also was the Best Picture). There have been worse blunders in the 90 years since.