Month: March 2026

Congress is a mess.

When Congress is handing out money, the battle is over who gets the credit. Today, it’s a different battle: who gets the blame.

You may remember that the House voted to fund the Dept. of Homeland Security more than 40 days ago. The bill went to the Senate where 60 votes, not a simple majority, is needed to pass a bill. Democrats refused to fund DHS because they hate ICE. But ICE was already funded for ~3 years. So, no change for the component of DHS they hate. But no pay for TSA meant total chaos for airport security. And no pay for the Coast Guard, FEMA and Secret Service either.

Last week, somehow in a middle-of- the-night vote, the Senate passed something. Not sure what changed, but the House Republicans refused to accept the Senate version.

Instead of working on a compromise, they all went home. Not for a weekend. For two weeks!

So, President Trump took the matter of ridiculously long lines at airports into his own hands (maybe like a King?). He ordered the new Secretary of DHS, Markwayne Mullin, to pay the TSA agents. Now, as I joked on Facebook, it didn’t take Sec. Mullin long to use common horse sense and find the money. As a recent Senator he knows that each Senator has an average of about $4 million in their “office account.” With 47 Senators voting against funding for DHS, that totals almost $200 million. Commandeering those accounts should be enough to keep TSA agents on the job. And we’ll see how those anti-ICE Senators and their staff like going without pay.

More “No Kings” rallies were organized Saturday. A report said the protests cost $3 Billion. I think that’s exaggerated. But the total number of protesters is not exaggerated. Here’s a question Democrat Party leaders need to ask, why can’t we get ten million wildly enthusiastic, sign-waving, drum-beating supporters to attend “pro-Democrat” rallies? How many will spend a Saturday standing along a street cheering for their local, state, and national candidates? Most of the Democrat’s main policies, including open borders, no deportations, no voter ID, ignore fraud, and add taxes instead of cut spending, are supported by only a fourth of the voters.

A friend pointed out that “No Kings” was not actually about Kings. Really? The only King most of the No Kings protesters can name is King Charles of England who has no real power. Recently, two countries that were ruled by a powerful king-like person lost those leaders: Venezuela and Iran.

I wonder how the No-Kings Democrats would react if, against all odds, the “kings” of Russia and China were deposed. Would they welcome success?

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“I have made a comfortable living by telling the truth about public men and politicians. I have had all kind of suggestions and offers to stop telling the truth about them and start lying for them, but, NO, I have gotten by this far on one thing. Why should I change and take a chance of failing?” WA #89, Aug. 24, 1924

Will Rogers frequently said, “All I know is what I read in the newspaper.” A hundred years ago newspapers were the only source of news, except the local barber shop and Women’s Club. Will often read 2 or 3 daily newspapers, especially when preparing for a presentation that night.

Today, more people depend on TV networks for their News. But one major national story seems to have slipped past those folks. A young independent journalist, Nick Shirley, has investigated and uncovered government fraud, first in Minnesota, and recently in California. Where are Lester Holt of NBC, Aaron Katersky and David Muir with ABC, or Jake Tapper, CNN?

Nick Shirley investigated and showed that Billions in federal tax dollars in Minnesota were wasted, with up to 90% going to Somalis who claimed it was for autistic children and day care centers. You might have seen the empty “Learing Center” in Minneapolis.

Then Mr. Shirley went to Los Angeles. He visited a day care that had only a couple of kids and no adult present. Also, a huge former motel, nearly empty, that received $170 million for hospice care.

Did the Governors of MN and CA thank Nick Shirley for exposing the waste? No, they belittled him. But that won’t stop him. He may show up in your state next, including here in Ohio.

Here’s a hint for a possible Ohio investigation: did you ever invite a friend or family to stay with you “temporarily?” And 15 years later, they refuse to move out?

California Governor Newsom has other disastrous boondoggles. The $33 Billion high-speed Los Angeles to San Francisco railroad is costing at least $140 Billion with zero tracks laid. If it is ever finished, to recoup the cost a round-trip ticket would cost over $2000.

If that isn’t enough waste, a few folks in Los Angeles convinced Newsom to commit $114 million to build a bridge over the famous 101 highway. You might be thinking, that must be an important interchange for I-10. No, it’s a bridge demanded by a few wildlife lovers for a couple of cougars and a flock of… butterflies.

Now, exactly how wide does this bridge have to be, even if two cougars decide to cross in opposite directions at the same time? Six feet should be plenty. But no, the cougar devotees calculated that for cougars to meander across, without interference from butterflies fluttering overhead, the bridge had to be 175 feet wide!

How does this bridge compare to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge? This bridge is 210-foot long. Would you believe, at the inflation-adjusted cost for the 9000-foot Golden Gate, per foot of length this Cougar-Butterfly Bridge is 6 times more expensive?

I haven’t seen the signs directing the cougars to the bridge. If they work as well as “deer crossing” signs in Eastern states…

The shutdown of TSA and other parts of Homeland Security continues. Since ICE agents are still getting paid, President Trump is moving ICE to help the undermanned TSA at airports. How will Sen. Schumer react at LaGuardia when he reaches the front of the line and an ICE agent asks for his ID?

The President gave Iran an ultimatum: open the oil shipping lane or we’ll destroy your electric generating plants. Will the lights go out in Tehran tomorrow?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The old newspaper in the morning is my breakfast. Course I don’t entirely depend on it. I like it accompanied by some ham and eggs, and a few biscuits, a series of cups of coffee…”  WA #257, Nov. 27, 1927

“These big wars over commerce, they kill more people, but ones over religion is really the most bitter.” WA #350, Sept. 8, 1929

I spent Friday and Saturday in Ireland.

Okay, this Ireland is a small community in the middle of West Virginia. For 44 years they have put on the Irish Spring Festival, centered around the Community Building (formerly a 2-room school) and the Methodist Church. Activities for all ages include square dancing, basketball, kite flying, bingo, costume contest, a parade, gospel sing, 5k Walk/run, and Road Bowling. Plenty food and homemade crafts.

These country folks, including several of my relatives, know how to have a good time while serving the community. They select a King and Queen (three candidates for each). The process raises money to maintain the community building and upgrade the kitchen. The candidates who attract the most money, a penny a vote, are the winners. (Not much different than most of our elections.) With inflation, and a shortage of pennies, next year it will cost a dollar per vote.

Road bowling may be a new term for you. The ball is about the size of a tennis ball, but quite heavy. The sport is conducted on a country road. The ball is tossed, somewhat like a regular bowling ball, and the farther it rolls without careening off the road, the better. Each successive toss is from where the ball stopped rolling. The course is about 3 miles, up and down hills and around curves, and the team that gets to the end with the fewest throws is the winner.

The Festival continues until March 20. At 10:46 a.m., to mark the official start of Spring, a spirited group will climb to the top of a steep hill where a huge rock has been christened the “Blarney stone.” Whether anyone kisses the Blarney stone may depend on evidence of any birds recently perched thereon.

Meanwhile in Washington, the Senate is locked in an argument over funding the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). Republicans want to fund the whole department while Democrats have shut down payments to the workers with TSA, the Secret Service, FEMA, and the National Guard because they want to get rid of one part of DHS: ICE.

Suppose Congress treated the Department of Agriculture the same way. Republicans might favor passing the 20 percent of the budget that supports farmers and reject the 80 percent that is mostly for SNAP (food stamps). And Democrats would be the opposite. So far, they have had enough common horse sense to fund USDA as a whole. (The delay in passing the “Farm Bill” is an issue for later.)

Back to the argument over DHS and ICE. A simple question will tell you where your Senator stands. Ask, “Do you favor deporting people who are here illegally, especially those who have committed other crimes?”

Did you know this? ICE is funded for the next 3 years! There’s nothing Congress can do to eliminate the ICE budget. So, to get even with ICE employees (who are executing a law passed by Congress), Democrat Senators are essentially forcing employees in TSA, FEMA, and other DHS agencies to work without getting a timely paycheck. Somehow, they think this action will attract votes from citizens who are asked to go to the airport 3 or 4 hours early to get through TSA.

The war in Iran continues. The armed forces of Israel and the U.S. have wiped out Iran’s Navy and Air Force. Political and military leadership in Iran has been decimated. (The current Supreme Leader is represented by a cardboard cutout.) Yet, Iran still has missiles, cluster bombs, drones, and small swift boats which are causing havoc across the Middle East and blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Again, there is disagreement in Congress. Many Democrats say we should stop the war immediately. Yet, a few years ago the same Senators were strongly in favor of stopping Iran from having nuclear bombs and being run by radical Islamists. Now that a President has actually taken action toward those goals for the first time in 47 years, they object.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

         “This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932

        “They [Congress] wouldn’t be so serious and particular if they only had to vote on what they thought was good for the majority of the people of the U. S. That would be a cinch… They first must consider is, or was, it introduced by a member of the opposite Political Party. If it is, why then something is wrong with it from the start, for everything the opposite side does has a catch in it.” WA #78, June 8, 1924

The attack on Iran continues. Khamenei’s son has been selected (or condemned) as the next Supreme Leader of the radical Islamic government. It is questionable whether he was picked by Muslim leaders, or by Israeli spies. Bets are being taken on which day this week he will be taken out by an Israeli jet or missile.

Meanwhile, most Democrats in Congress voted to end the attacks immediately and let the Khamenei clan become a nuclear power and dominate the Middle East region. They were outnumbered by Republicans who support the war to wipe out the radical government and a succession of leaders.

I’m hearing plenty of arguments on both sides. It boils down to ones who favor the war, hoping to get a new pro-democracy government, and the ones who are anti-war, many just because they are also anti-Trump.

A logical question relates to what’s wrong with Iran getting a nuclear bomb when other nations, including Russia and China, already have hundreds. Yes, Russia and China have nuclear weapons and ICBMs that can strike the US.

What makes Iran different? For one, those Communist leaders have some semblance of civilization. They know an attack on us would also mean self-destruction. But the radical Muslim leaders in Iran are (or for 50 of ‘em, “were”) so determined to wipe out Western civilization they don’t care if they and all of their fellow Iranians die. For decades, their theme has been “Death to America!”

According to reports, the Iranian navy ships have all been sunk and most of their Air Force destroyed. Here’s the irony: while we have been focused on these “big” means of attack, the Iranians now have little swift boats in the Persian Gulf and drones. Thousands or millions of drones that can reach Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other nearby nations are causing havoc. For Iran, if one drone out of 500 gets through to a target, that’s success. And the swift boats can attack an oil tanker even if we have a Navy battleship protecting it. Still dangerous and risky.

For a while, we have to get used to paying more for gasoline and diesel. Oil hit $100 a barrel. And stock prices dropped 3% in a week. Those economic blows should end when the turmoil in Iran, Venezuela (and Cuba?) settles down.

But the loss of jobs the last few months, partly due to AI (Artificial Intelligence), is more concerning. AI is making a lot of jobs easier and quicker, while eliminating others. Optimistically, we’ll benefit from AI just as we have grown with mechanization, technology, and automation. Think of AI compared to computers and the internet; with AI, we still need HI (Human Intelligence).

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

     “They showed me where the next war is going to be fought. It’s going to be fought in the air. There won’t be any digging in with shovels and living in trenches.” (DT #1813, May 16, 1932)

Did anything happen while I was away?

Well, President Trump delivered a State of the Union address to Congress. It seems he has done so much in 13 months it took almost two hours to cover the accomplishments. The speech was so long it required a full page in the New York Times to list the lies and exaggerations.

One line from the speech got a lot of attention, “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Surprisingly, not all American citizens agree, including almost half of Congress.

After I returned from Arizona, our old enemies in Iran, the radical Islamists, were attacked. Yesterday morning, Ayatollah Khomeini and most of their leaders were killed. Israeli Intelligence infiltrated the inner circle and knew that about 40 were together in a meeting. Boom! They were gone!

Any “next-in-line” Islamic leaders in Iran may be reluctant to claim the title; do they want to bet their life against Israel’s spies and technology?

You may remember that in 1979, the people of Iran were living a wonderful, “Western style” life. Then the radicals attacked the US Embassy and held 52 American men hostage for 444 days. Democrats and Republicans were united in condemning this act and the forced transition of Iranians to a Muslim Sharia law lifestyle. The hostages were released the day President Reagan was inaugurated. But that didn’t stop the acts of war. Iran funded radical Muslims who have killed over a thousand Americans, including 241 of our military by Hezbollah, in Lebanon in 1983. And of course, it was Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza who killed 1200 and took 250 hostages in Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. The dead included 31 American citizens.

Today, according to a quick poll, every demographic group in America favors the attack by Israel and the US, except one: white Democrats. While Iranians in the country and around the world are celebrating the liberation (or the beginning of it) from the death and torture of thousands by Khomeini, many Democrats are condemning the military action. I guess they favored allowing Khomeini to continue progress on building nuclear bombs and missiles that could reach our East Coast.

Diplomatic negotiations were going on to the last day. Clearly, Iran had no intention of negotiating away their goal of building nuclear bombs. They acted nice, trying to stretch out the discussions a few more weeks so Iran could put a nuclear bomb on an ICBM and land it on Washington, DC.

Let me give a sincere “Thank you” to my hosts for a week in Arizona, Bryan and Kelly Pavlovic and Jim Waters. Part business, part pleasure. They took me to the Coolidge Dam. (At the dedication in 1930, Calvin Coolidge was there with a hundred guests, including Will Rogers.) Paul Ramirez of Tucson took me to the Border where we met with rancher Dean Fish and inspected the new 30-foot wall. (Looking through the narrow gaps in the wall, I saw the old “barrier,” a 3-strand barbed wire fence.) My Ohio neighbor, Veronica Boysel and her husband, spend the winter in Wickenburg. She took me exploring some high-country desert rangeland on a 4-wheeler. We saw a lot more cactus than cattle. And my record-setting swimmer friend, Deborah Gardner, invited me to watch her and several friends swim in cold Lake Pleasant, then lunch the next day with her parents, Joedy and Ruth Ann Gardner in Peoria. My West Virginia friends will recognize Joedy as a former basketball player and coach at WVU. Memorabilia of Joedy’s time as a Marine fighter jet pilot in Vietnam are displayed at the Mountaineer Military Museum in Weston.