Month: April 2025

I joked a few months ago that the fastest way to deport illegal immigrant criminals is to, first, deport their lawyers.

Now, it seems a few judges could face deportation. It is understandable that liberal judges would go easy on certain immigrants who came here illegally, or overstayed their visas. There will always be honest debate and disagreements between liberals and conservatives. But when judges side with and protect convicted criminals, they have gone far beyond legal jurisprudence. (I think that’s a fancy word lawyers use.)

The “tariff war” with China is hurting our farmers. You may know that we grow a lot more corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton than we consume here. And China is shifting their purchases to buy more grain from Brazil and other countries to feed 1.4 billion people. You may be surprised to learn that we are now a “net importer” of food products. This is largely because of imports of fresh fruits and vegetables in winter, and products we can’t economically grow here, such as bananas and coffee.

I heard about a scientific report from a group that wants all of us to become vegans and only eat food grown on organic farms. We have over 8 billion people on Earth. A hundred years ago, when almost all food was grown organically (without chemical fertilizer or pesticides), the total population was 2 billion. Even with that global population, there were a lot of hungry people in the 1920s and 1930s. If all farm chemicals were banned worldwide, and there were no farm animals which provide milk, eggs and meat (and organic “fertilizer”), what would happen to the world population?

The world celebrated the life of Pope Francis yesterday. For the next week or two, Catholics will be focused on the Vatican, waiting to see who the Cardinals pick as the next Pope.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Of all the cockeyed things we got in this country at the present time, it’s some of our judges.” DT#1374, Dec. 18, 1930

“Wish all the Farmers would move to town one year; that’s the only way I know to clear the thing up.” WA #452, Aug. 23, 1931

Thirty years ago, April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck in front of the 9-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He and Terry Nichols had spent a year planning an attack to kill as many federal employees as possible. The truck was loaded with 13 barrels filled with two and a half tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, half a ton of liquid nitromethane, plus diesel fuel and time-delayed ignition devices.

The blast at 9:02 a.m. destroyed the front third of the federal building and destroyed or damaged over 300 other buildings. The blast shattered glass in businesses and houses up to 12 blocks away. 168 people were killed and 800 injured.

McVeigh was executed in 2001 and Nichols is serving 161 life sentences in federal prison. They were corrupted by their hatred of the federal government to plan and carry out such a horrible mass murder.

Recently, there is some “hatred of the federal government” but it’s only directed at one side. Today, it’s Republicans. Previously, it was Democrats targeted by hatred. Instead of adding “fuel to the flame” we need to tone down the criticism of policies and practices we don’t like.

One way to reduce the intense disagreements would be to talk one-on-one instead of instantly saying, “Change to my way of thinking or I’ll sue.”

Will Rogers joked about lawyers, so I decided to look up some numbers. A hundred years ago we had about 115,000 lawyers, or 0.1% of the US population. Now we have TEN TIMES as many lawyers. As Will wrote in 1931, “Did you read how many thousands, not hundreds, but thousands of students just graduated all over the country in law? Going to take an awful lot of crime to support that bunch.” (DT #1527, June 15, 1931)

A hundred years ago about 30% of our population was farmers. Can you imagine if the farm population had increased the same as lawyers? Instead, the number of farmers has plummeted. Back then a farmer had trouble even finding a lawyer. Today there’s almost one lawyer for every farm. Unfortunately, several of those are shysters trying to make it harder for farmers to farm.

While I’m joking about too many lawyers, Senator Van Hollen of Maryland wants even more lawyers, thousands more. He flew to El Salvador to visit a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in Maryland for years, illegally. The Senator insists that every individual here illegally, even active members of MS-13 and other gangs, must have a hearing in federal court before he can be shipped out, either to his home country or to prison. What does that mean?

If President Trump wants to deport the 10,000,000 that came here in the last few years, each one must appear in court, one at a time. That requires a judge, a federal prosecutor, and a defense attorney (all 3 paid for by our taxes). Times ten million! Now, whether our Constitution requires that extreme measure will be decided by 9 prominent lawyers. Yes, the Supreme Court.

Happy Easter. I know it’s late in the day. For the 80% of us who are Christians, Easter is truly the happiest day of the year. Easter celebrates the day Jesus was resurrected. Once dead, but now He lives.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“I bet any Sunday could be made as popular at church as Easter is if you made ‘em fashion shows too… We will do anything, if you just in some way turn it into a show.” DT #2718, Apr. 22, 1935

“You see that’s one thing about Democrats that make ‘em different from Republicans. This fellow (President) Roosevelt has got the nerve to defy those fellows if he thinks it’s for the good of all.” WA #553, July 30, 1933

We welcome more than a million foreign college students every year. Most are brilliant, have common horse sense, and go on to have successful careers in their own country, or here.

Recently, a few hundred decided their hatred for Israel (and Jewish students) is more important than the special opportunity to study here. And it’s shocking how many American students (and professors) agree with ‘em.

Well, I have a suggestion. These students from a foreign country who are pro-Hamas should take their educational goals to a different foreign country where they will fit right in: Iran. At the University of Tehran, they will love being surrounded by others who hate Israel and America.

Meanwhile, scientists are thinking about bringing back to life a few extinct animals including the woolly mammoth, passenger pigeon and dodo bird. While they are pondering, I suggest they follow the same guidelines that President Trump has set for new regulations. For every new one, eliminate 10 existing ones.

Maybe a few woolly mammoths would be welcomed. But I don’t want them roaming through my cornfield or back yard. Send them to northern Canada, Greenland or Siberia.

So, which 10 species should we eliminate?  Here are 5 to start with: rats, groundhogs, mosquitos, prairie dogs, and rattlesnakes. Any suggestions?

One irritating species a lot of folks would like to get rid of is the IRS. (See quotes below)

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.” WA #17, April 8, 1923 (also WA #99, Nov. 2, 1924)

“There is some talk of lowering (the income tax), and they will have to. People are not making enough to pay it.” WA #17, April 8, 1923

“Our financial ills will never be settled till you fix it so every man will pay an income tax on what he earns, be it a farm, grocery store or municipal or government bonds.” DT #2068, March 21, 1933

“We got a long-sighted government. When everybody has got money they cut the taxes, and when they’re broke they raise ’em.” DT #1770, March 27, 1932

“It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one-tenth as good.” DT #1770, March 27, 1932

Yesterday was a national day for protesters. Anyone who has ever protested against anything was welcome to protest. Even rank amateurs with a box of crayons and a piece of cardboard could join the party.

The common theme, if there was one, was “Hands Off.” Apparently, they want the Trump administration to stop searching the $6,000,000,000,000 federal budget for waste, fraud and abuse. I saw a lot of different “hands off” signs. One I didn’t see, but should have been prominent, is “Hands Off my Fraud.”

The biggest protest was in Washington, DC.  Maybe half a million protested against the reduction in the number of federal employees. Many of the protesters are employees who don’t want to go to their offices during the week, but they showed up there on Saturday.

If Kamala Harris was watching these huge anti-Trump protests across the whole country she was probably yelling at the television, “Where were these millions of folks when I needed them on November 5?”

The protesters probably missed the news that the Senate and House each passed a bill to keep the tax cuts that all taxpayers benefited from since 2017, plus additional reductions. Now, this is two different bills, and they will do some horse trading to come up with a final bill.

Whether this tax bill will make up for the recent stock market losses will depend on how long you can hang on to your stocks. The tariffs announced Wednesday have rattled stocks around the world. I’m no stock prognosticator. But I’m optimistic the Dow Jones will rebound within a few months. A lot of countries are ready to deal on tariffs.

On the other hand, a pessimist might point to October 1929. During the Great Depression that followed, the Dow dropped about 80%. It did not return to the 1929 high until 1953.

Let me come back to federal employees. I know several people in the Dept. of Agriculture. They do valuable research that helps keep our farmers in business and food affordable. The Soil Health unit with about 20 professionals was wiped out. At a time when dust storms are rampant and we are losing valuable topsoil through water erosion, we need more focus, not less, on practices that make our farmland healthier. No-till and cover crops instead of degenerative tillage.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“New York can’t sleep tonight wondering what the stock market will open at tomorrow. Radio just had its usual amount of static over the weekend… ‘Why does this have to happen?’ They say, ‘It’s for the good of the country.’ Now you tell one.” DT #793, Feb. 10, 1929

“(The old pioneer) wanted to plow up the land that should have been left to grass.  We’re just now learning that we can rob from nature the same way as we can rob from an individual.  All he had was an ax, and a plow, and a gun, and he just went out and lived off nature. But really, he thought it was nature he was living off of, but it was really future generations that he was living off of.” Radio, Apr. 14, 1935