Author Archives: Dave Olsson

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The Broadside | Trump’s Tariff Regime Seems Chaotic But He’s a Disrupter and I Trust He Knows What He’s Doing

I’m not an economist and I don’t play one on TV, so I’m not sure what to tell you about Trump’s tariff scheme. He cranks out a list of countries using some mathematical formula that creates just the right reciprocal tariffs on each, starting with a baseline 10% tariff on everyone we trade with.

Then the markets tank, analysts panic and there’s a massive sell-off. Then Trump “pauses” the tariffs for 90 days so that he can make deals with dozens of countries that reached out to the U.S. Markets skyrocket and post one of its biggest rallies in history.

What gives?

First, the tariffs to every country was meant to cause the free world to make a choice – China or us. According to Scott Bessent on the White House lawn early this afternoon, north of 75 countries have chosen us. They are clamoring to renegotiate trade deals. Inevitably, every one of these deals will benefit the United States. It defies logic to believe that America’s position vis-a-vis trade with any individual country is going to be worse off after negotiating a new deal. With some countries, we’ll be nominally better off. With other countries, we’ll be in a much more equitable place. And because we have the commitment of 75+ countries to renegotiate trade, Trump is pausing the tariffs for 90-days in good faith in order to let the negotiators do their thing.

The bottom line is none of these pending trade deals would have been offered or committed to without the tariffs used as an attention-getter.

Second, by forcing the world to choose between the United States and China, China has become further isolated. Trump has all the leverage in the world to squeeze China, and squeezing them is exactly what he’s doing.

It’s high stakes gamesmanship and Trump knows exactly what he’s doing.

Trump knew all along the stock market, and the angst around it from the chattering class in resistance media was transient, and would rebound once he got us into a position of strength in global trade.

The bottom line to phase two is that all of it – phase 1 and phase 2, were a plan to take on China and combat them as the growing threat they are before having to deal with them anyway once they’re stronger and we’re weaker. This has been always about boxing in China. All of it. Yes, Canada, you, too.

I get a little nervous when playing chicken with a behemoth like China. We are dependent on China for pharmaceuticals, as we learned during Covid (released by China on purpose, I’m convinced, to take out Donald Trump). China supplies us with electrical machinery and TV parts, nuclear reactor parts and mechanical appliances, toys, games, sports equipment, plastics, furniture and lamps, vehicles, iron and steel, and optical and photographic parts, electronics, medical equipment, pharmaceutical ingredients, and, last but not least, rare earth minerals, which are crucial for industries like defense, renewable energy, and consumer electronics.

The U.S. imported $438 billion worth of goods from China in 2024 and only exported $144 billion. We’ve outsourced a lot of our manufacturing to China.

The tariffs are a tool to reset global trade and to begin diminishing the influence that China has on the world stage. They probably won’t be too happy about any negative impact that a reordered trade regime has on their Belt and Road strategy.

Both Apple and Porsche scrambled to get their products from India and Germany before the tariffs went into effect.

Since March, Tim Cook-led Apple has chartered at least six cargo jets, each carrying an estimated 100 tons of iPhones, to fly from India to the US, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

The tech giant also nudged Indian authorities to expedite the shipments through customs.

Apple “wanted to beat the tariff” with its last-minute shipments, a source familiar with its planning told Reuters.

In total, approximately 1.5 million iPhones were ferried to the US, according to Reuters calculations.

Meanwhile, the German luxury car brand Porsche warned analysts on Thursday that its first-quarter results would be impacted by “higher company-owned inventory shipped to the US to beat the tariff deadline.”

Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imported cars and car parts that went into effect April 3.

That levy remains in effect despite his 90-day pause on country-specific measures.

Trump is a disrupter, and I learned from his first term and from his second presidential campaign not to underestimate him, nor to panic when he does something that seems completely illogical. There’s a method to his madness, and I’ve decided to trust that his instincts are pretty good.

Besides, what choice do I have?

Have a great weekend.

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The Broadside | Islam Is Subduing the West, Including the U.S.

A longer one today. I encourage you to read and listen to it all.

One of the things that I am deeply concerned about is the growing presence of Islam in the United States. It is a concern that stems from what we’ve witnessed over the 24 years since 9/11, when jihadi “extremists” made their presence known to the whole world.

Since then, Islamic “extremists” have carried out thousands of attacks worldwide, including four commuter trains bombed in Madrid (191 dead); the Beslan massacre (330 dead); four suicide bombers during London rush hour (52 killed); the massacre of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris (17 killed); the massacre of students at a university campus in Kenya (150 dead); a rampage at a beach resort in Tunisia (37 murdered); and many others.

As bad as these assaults are, there’s something even worse happening across Europe: the fall of the West to Islamic invasion.

A world-historical societal transformation is taking place before our very eyes, and yet few have taken notice. Britain, the erstwhile leader of the Western world and the foundation and source of English-speaking civilization, is in its last days as a free society, and will soon become an Islamic state. Yet despite the mountains of evidence that this transformation is taking place, many will still deny that it is happening at all. They may not even admit it when it overtakes them personally.

The English actor-turned-political-activist Lawrence Fox recently noted what was happening: “The Mayor of London is a Muslim. The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim. The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim. Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim. The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim. The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim. The mayor of Luton is a Muslim. The mayor of Oldham is Muslim. The mayor of Rochdale is Muslim. All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England.”

[…]

Lawrence Fox continued: “Today there are over 3,000 mosques in England. There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 Sharia Councils. 78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation. 63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing. State-supported Muslim families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation. Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?” 

Paul Weston agrees.

An unpleasant reality: The government accepts the fact that Britain will be an Islamic State well before 2050, and is thus guided by one operational principle alone: ensure the transition from Christian/Post-Christian Britain to Britistan is as peaceful as possible. What would this look like in practice? You are witnessing it in real time. Islam is revered, promoted and excused. Traditional Britain is persecuted smeared and jailed

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born and raised a Muslim in Mogadishu, Somalia. In her early 30s she renounced Islam and identified as an atheist. She recently underwent a conversion to Christianity (see here). She has the same concern as Spencer and Weston.

In a nine-count thread on X, Maral Salmassi also comes to the same conclusion in her final panel (all nine posts are worth reading):

“Modern civilization,” by which she means the West.

Which brings me back to the United States. We, too, are incrementally going the way of Europe. There are roughly 4 million Muslims in the U.S. According to a CNN report from 2018,

According to [Pew Research Center] data, the Muslim population is growing at an accelerated rate, and will more than double from an estimated 3.45 million in 2017 to an estimated 8.1 million in 2050. In the meantime, Muslims are expected to surpass Jews as the second-largest religious group.

We’ve had numerous terrorist attacks on us since 9/11, including the Times Square bomber (failed); the Fort Hood shooting (13 dead); the Boston Marathon bombing (3 dead); the business holiday event shooting in San Bernadino (14 killed); the Orlando nightclub shooting (49 dead); the pickup truck attack on a Manhattan bike path (8 killed); a Muslim beheading a co-worker in Oklahoma City; a Muslim trying to take over a Jet Blue cockpit (restrained); a Muslim attacker in Fargo, North Dakota (1 killed); a Muslim trying to run down a crowd of Jewish people with his car in LA (no one injured); and the jihadist who ran his truck down Bourbon street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day (15 killed). Plus, lots more (including so-called “honor killings”) that I document here.

We also have Muslim mayors.

Voters in three Detroit suburbs chose, for the first time, mayors who are both Muslim and Arab American in historic local elections on Tuesday, marking a shift in political power to a region that has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S.

Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck, all located in southeastern Michigan, have seen decades of economic growth and cultural advancement driven by Arab American immigration and investment, but have struggled with representation.

From another report,

Hamtramck, which has a population of about 28,000 people, made headlines in 2021 when it became the first US city to elect an all-Muslim City Council and a Muslim mayor.

Hamtramck is also the only city in America with a Muslim majority population, while Dearborn is said to have the country’s largest concentration of Arab Americans. The five states with the highest Muslim populations (2025) are New York (724,000), California (504,000), Illinois (474,000), New Jersey (322,000), Texas (313,000), and Michigan (242,000) [Source].

Why should we be concerned? Because as Muslims become a greater part of society, they will begin demanding accommodations. In fact, it has already started in ways that aren’t easy to see.

Stocks:

The rising Muslim population has also led to an increase in demand for Shariah-compliant stocks. These stocks are from businesses that conduct their activities in accordance with Shariah rules and refrain from gaining exposure to sectors like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. 

Schools:

Food:

Those are just three examples. It goes much deeper and darker than just Sharia-compliant products or accommodations. It’s all about infiltration and conquering the country.

If this is all new to you, it may be a lot to take in. It may even seem far-fetched. But I’ve been watching the rise of Islam in the West and in the U.S. for about 15 years. I may not face the long-term consequences of what is growing in our country, but my children and their children most certainly will.

If you want to know what will happen here without any intervention, just watch what happens in England. It won’t be long before the Brits surrender to a fully Islamified nation, or have to literally fight their way out of submission.

I can guarantee you that in the not-too-distant future, the conflict between freedom as a way of life in a constitutional republic and the dictates of Islam will become greatly aggravated and, if nothing is done to head off that conflict, it will end in patriotic Americans having to fight for survival.

I guarantee it.

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The Broadside | Evidence for the Battle of Armageddon

This blog is meant to look at culture, politics and faith but mostly focuses on politics. As I’ve mentioned before, I deliberately try to include some faith-related content that eschews politics altogether.

For the first time, a team of Israeli archaeologists has uncovered ancient artifacts at northern Israel’s “Armageddon” site that might offer proof of an epic battle documented in the books of Kings II and Chronicles between a king of Judah and an Egyptian pharaoh.

Two academic papers published earlier this year explained how an unprecedented amount of 7th-century BCE Egyptian pottery was found in recent excavations at Megiddo, suggesting that Egyptian soldiers were indeed in the right biblical place at what could be the right biblical period.

“Megiddo is the only site in Israel and the neighboring countries mentioned in the Bible and in all great records of the Ancient Near East,” said Prof. Israel Finkelstein, head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa and long-time director of the Megiddo Expedition.

I love biblical archaeology that offers evidence, if not outright proof, for events and people written about in the Bible. So often the Bible is scoffed at as being mythological or just a collection of imaginative stories, but certainly not rooted in history. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Book of 2 Chronicles in chapters 34-35 and 2 Kings in chapters 22-23 narrate the vicissitudes of the 16th King of Judah, Josiah. As he rose to the throne, he was described as a God-fearing leader who brought the people of Israel back to a righteous path after centuries of idol-worshipping and sinful behaviors. Yet, his efforts did not placate God’s wrath against the people. As Egyptian Pharaoh Necho marched against the Assyrians, Josiah confronted him at Megiddo, and Necho killed him (2 Chronicles 35:20-22; 2 Kings 23:29). The Assyrians, one of several biblical foes of the people of Israel, were responsible for destroying the kingdom of Israel in the northern part of the land (where Megiddo is located) in the 8th century CE, a century before the Josiah-Necho battle.

“It is important to note that the re-establishment of the site as an Egyptian stronghold in the late 7th century BCE had long been suspected, mostly based on a biblical verse in the Book of Kings, which described Josiah’s execution at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho,” said Dr. Assaf Kleiman of Ben Gurion University, a senior member of the Megiddo Expedition staff who led the studies published in Egypt and the Levant and the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament.

The Bible is so historically accurate that archaeologists have found it a reliable source for their own work.

One of the archaeologists that I follow is Joel Kramer, who hosts episodes of the Expedition Bible on YouTube, to which I subscribe. The most recent episode is Tomb of the Exodus Pharaoh: What Was Found & Why You Don’t Know About It!

In that episode (embedded below), Kramer finds the mummy of what we can be pretty sure is the pharaoh of the exodus, when the Israelites broke free from Egypt where they had been enslaved for more than 400 years. Most fascinating is the tantalizing possibility that we also find the mummified remains of the pharaoh’s son — the one who dies as a result of the last plague that God brought on the Egyptians.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
— Exodus 12:29-30

Have a good weekend.

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The Broadside | You Really Can’t Hate the Media Enough

Leslie Stahl, the 83-year-old “See BS News” reporter, asks a heartless question of Jewish American Keith Siegel, a former Hamas hostage.

A former hostage accuses Hamas of starving him while he was a captive, and she immediately tries to undermine the credibility of his accusation by questioning whether Hamas really meant to starve him or were just forced to starve him because they themselves didn’t have any food, the poor babies.

Stahl asks this question in the face of the barbarities that Hamas committed during their attack on October 7, and the known fact that any supplies from the outside world, including food, always winds up in the hands of the terrorist organization.

But Siegel shuts her down.

While Siegel discussed how his captors treated him, he stated that after his wife, Aviva, was released from captivity, Hamas became “very mean and very cruel and violent.”

“They were beating me and starving me,” Siegel said. Stahl followed by asking, “Do you think they starved you because or they just didn’t have food?”

Siegel denied that his torturers didn’t have enough food, recounting, “No, I think they starved me, and they would often eat in front of me and not offer me food.”

To suggest that Hamas was itself starving and therefore they had no food to give and therefore they were innocent of his charges is Stahl’s effort to limit the reputational damage to Hamas. It also signals that “See BS News” stands with Hamas. “They’re really not that bad, are they? Isn’t it possible that they just didn’t have any food to give you? Let’s not be too hard on the darlings.”

This isn’t journalism; it’s activism.

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The Broadside | Our Evil Shadow Government Is Being Exposed

This is what I voted for.

The initial release of the JFK Files will not be enough to turn the tide against the deep state, but Trump has only been in office less than 75 days. He has earned a grace period considering the myriad of challenges facing the country, but ultimately, his base expects him to fulfill his promises of transparency sooner rather than later. The initial release of the JFK files is a great start for the public to taste openness for the first time, and I hope it will soon lead to earth-shattering discoveries. This process is building momentum and priming the public to hear the unvarnished truth that will rip the lid off government corruption.

Remember, it was only last year when President Trump could have suffered the same fate as John F. Kennedy, being shot in the head by a suspicious lone gunman with convenient security lapses in an operation that very well may have involved federal collusion. The deep state learned with the JFK assassination that they could get away with eliminating their opponents in broad daylight, and the American system has been essentially held hostage ever since. Only through the providential will of God was Trump able to survive his assassination attempt, and now Trump has a chance to bring lasting change to the corrupt system that may never come again.

The deep state has been weakened after being unable to keep Trump from the presidency, but it will only be brought to heel after being correctly exposed. When the public sees the complete JFK Files, followed by the 9/11 files, the MLK Files, the Epstein files, and other shocking government documents we may not even be aware of, there will be no possible argument preventing reform. These deep state monoliths – the FBI, CIA, NSA, and others – hide behind the guise of protecting national security to cover up their misdeeds.

It’s not just the JFK, RFK, MLK and Epstein files being released that I voted for. That’s just one facet of what I want. It’s also exposing the inner workings of the administrative bureaucracy and how they have taken hard-earned money from me (and you) and distributed it to unaccountable NON-GOVERNMENT organizations that hate me and seek to shatter all that I hold dear.

Read Schmitt’s entire thread and watch the embedded video(s). In particular, take a look at this graphic that lays out the “whole of society approach” that these organizations—funded by money taken from you and me—take to control what we see, hear and think.

It’s an astonishing and frightening web that’s been erected around us.

For an even deeper dive on the administrative state, e.g. the Deep State, take an hour and watch the new documentary from Ned Ryun called American Leviathan.

From the description:

What You’ll See in the Documentary:

  • The roots of the administrative state and its ties to the Progressive movement of the early 20th century
  • How unelected bureaucrats became the real power brokers in Washington
  • The role of FDR’s New Deal, LBJ’s Great Society, and decades of bipartisan complicity in growing Leviathan
  • The modern-day weaponization of government against dissenters and political opponents
  • A battle plan for slaying the Leviathan and restoring self-governance

This is not a history lesson for the faint of heart. It’s an unflinching look at the war that has been waged against the American Republic for over a century.

We’re in a war and we only have a couple of years, really, to win it.

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The Broadside | Now For Something Different: Entitled WNBA Players

I’m tired of privileged athletes complaining about how much they do or don’t get paid.

[Angel] Reese and fellow WNBA player DiJonai Carrington addressed the next WNBA collective bargaining agreement during Reese’s podcast Friday.

“I’ve got to get in the meetings because I’m hearing like, ‘If y’all don’t give us what we want, we sitting out,'” Reese said.

“The WNBA don’t pay my bills at all. I don’t even think it pays one of my bills. Literally.”

What does this woman spend her money on? Apparently she pays $8,000 a month for rent. If your job “don’t pay your bills at all,” maybe you should downsize. Or waitress in the off-season. Or maybe try coding.

The loudmouth baller, who plays for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, immediately showed America why she deserves more money.

WNBA player Angel Reese may not have helped her negotiating leverage much with a viral lowlight Monday.

During an Unrivaled game, Reese missed three straight shots while standing right under the basket, and one of the shots hit the bottom edge of the backboard.

Reese was able to at least come away with two offensive rebounds on the possession but fell to the hardwood after missing her third shot.

Footage of the sequence quickly spread across social media, and many mocked the timing of it after Reese ignited controversy with recent claims WNBA players may refuse to play games to negotiate higher pay.

As Ace says:

Before reading this, keep in mind that the real NBA, the men’s league, actually would allow any woman to play if they were good enough. They’re not a men’s only league by rule, but by practical fact.

Also keep in mind the NBA makes fifty (five-zero) times as much money as the WNBA, and the WNBA is, was, and always will be heavily subsidized by the NBA, who take less money to give more money to the women’s league players.

It’s already the Welfare National Basketball Association and of course they demand more welfare.

He doesn’t say where he got those stats, but I trust his reporting. Plus, it’s true of other women’s sports. Take women’s soccer for instance. I wrote about it some time ago here, after the women complained about the “pay gap.” The most pertinent point was what John Glynn said:

One of the major factors that separate men’s sports and women’s is a not so little thing called revenue. To put it bluntly, female soccer players, just like female basketball players and female hockey players, are paid less because their respective sports make less. The total prize money for the Women’s World Cup in France this July was $30 million; the total prize money for the men’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be $440 million.

This gap is criminal, right? It’s not. When viewed objectively—based on how much money each competition generates—women actually make more than men. How so?

Well, there is a sizable difference in the revenue available to pay the male and female teams. According to Mike Oznian, a writer for Forbes, the 2015 Women’s World Cup “brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%. The 2010 men’s World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players.”

Men’s sports outdraw women’s sports. Men run faster, swing harder, jump higher and throw further than women do. They’re physically larger and stronger. That’s why women get hurt when men are allowed to play in women’s sports.

Entitled brats like Angel Reese, who just finished her rookie season, should shut her mouth and play a few seasons without groaning about how unfair life is. Once she’s proved her reliability as a player, she can ask for a raise.

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The Broadside | At 50 Days There Are (At Least) 50 Wins

When Brandon was in office, every day seemed to crawl by. Months were like molasses, years like decades. Every moment he was in the White House with his cabal was a moment he could use to consolidate power and corrupt the institutions he controlled. I couldn’t wait for his four-year term to be done.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I can’t believe it’s been 50 days since Trump the Magnificent took office. The days and months fairly fly by. They’re going too fast! Slow down! It’s only four years! There’s so much more to accomplish!

But he’s off to a great start, as Paula Bolyard catalogues in 50 wins in 50 days. Here’s a few to whet your appetite:

1.    President Trump secured the border in unprecedented fashion.

  • Illegal border crossings have declined to the lowest level ever recorded — down 94% from last February and down 96% from the all-time high of the Biden Administration. In one sector, illegal border crossings are down 99% over 2023.
  • Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin: “If Fox were to send me down there right now, I would have trouble finding a single migrant on camera.”
  • CBS immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez: “Typically, when we go to the U.S./Mexico border, we at least see one group of people who are trying to cross into the U.S. illegally. We did not see a single migrant.”

 4. President Trump’s tariffs are leveling the playing field for American workers.

  • President Trump restored a 25% tariff on steel imports and elevated the tariff to 25% on aluminum imports to protect these critical American industries from unfair foreign competition – a move praised by the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Aluminum Association, and businesses across the country.
  • President Trump unveiled a plan for fair and reciprocal trade, making clear to the world that the United States will no longer tolerate being ripped off. 

6.    President Trump has secured billions of dollars in new U.S.-based investments.

  • Apple announced a historic $500 billion investment that will create 20,000 new U.S.-based jobs.
  • TSMC announced an unprecedented $100 billion investment in U.S.-based semiconductor chip manufacturing.
  • President Trump announced the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure project in history, securing $500 billion in planned private sector investment — with major CEOs agreeing it would not have been possible without President Trump’s leadership.
  • President Trump secured a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties to build new U.S.-based data centers.
  • CMA CGM announced a $20 billion investment in U.S. shipbuilding and logistics, which will create 10,000 new jobs.
  • Eli Lilly and Company announced a $27 billion investment in its U.S.-based manufacturing.
  • The Trump Administration announced an $18 billion investment by American liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Venture Global into their Plaquemines LNG export facility — made possible by President Trump’s energy policies.
  • Wisconsin-based Clarios, a leader in low-voltage energy storage, announced a $6 billion plan to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing.
  • Saudi Arabia declared its intention to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.
  • Taiwan pledged to boost its investment in the United States.

7.    President Trump is bringing manufacturing back to America.

  • The U.S. gained 10,000 manufacturing jobs in President Trump’s first full month in office — led by the auto sector, which gained the most new jobs in 15 months. This is a swift turnaround after losing an average of 9,000 manufacturing jobs per month in the final year of the Biden Administration.
  • Stellantis will reopen its assembly plant in Illinois, build its next-generation Dodge Durango in Michigan, and make new investments in their Ohio and Indiana facilities.
  • Nissan is expected to move some production to the U.S.
  • Mercedes-Benz announced plans to “grow” its vehicle production in the U.S.
  • Honda is expected to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid model in Indiana.
  • Electronics giants Samsung and LG “are considering moving their plants in Mexico to the U.S.” now that President Trump is back in office.
  • Siemens announced a $285 million investment in U.S. electrical product manufacturing, which will create more than 900 new skilled manufacturing jobs.

12.    President Trump unleashed American energy.

  • President Trump declared a National Energy Emergency to unlock America’s full energy potential and bring down costs for American families — and the U.S. is now the largest net exporter of natural gas in the world.
  • President Trump re-opened 625 million acres for offshore drilling, which Biden banned in his waning days, in order to “drill, baby, drill.”
  • President Trump established the National Energy Dominance Council to maximize use of America’s extensive energy resources.

19.    President Trump is ending waste, fraud, and abuse in government.

  • President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to maximize government productivity and ensure the best use of taxpayer funds — which has already achieved tens of billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.
  • President Trump stopped the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID — ensuring taxpayers are no longer on the hook for funding pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, such as sex changes in Guatemala.

27.    President Trump designated English as the official language of the United States.

49.    President Trump is ending China’s chokehold over the Panama Canal as he seeks its rightful return to U.S. ownership.

  • Following a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino agreed to withdraw from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, a debt-trap diplomacy scheme the Chinese Communist Party uses to gain influence over developing nations.
  • CK Hutchison Holding sold ports operating on both sides of the Panama Canal to a U.S.-based consortium, effectively placing the ports back in American control.

These are some of my favorites. There’s much more at the link. Go read them all and be amazed.

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The Broadside | Remember the Alamo!

I’m not an expert on the battle, but I think it’s worth taking a moment to remember the Alamo. Yesterday was the 189th anniversary of the martyrdom of the heroes of the Alamo, including Jim Bowie, William B. Travis, and Davey Crockett.

The context of the battle was the drive for Texian’s independence from Mexico. Conflict had been growing since late in 1835, when the Texians at Gonzales refused to return a cannon that Mexico had lent them. Realizing they were outnumbered, the Mexican army gave up the fight and retreated to San Antonio de Bexár (San Antonio).

The Texians followed and laid siege to San Antonio de Bexár. After a losing a couple of battles in October and November, the Mexican army withdrew, and the Texians began fortifying the town and the Alamo garrison, expecting a counterattack.

Unbeknownst to them, a division of the Mexican army, under the command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the elected president of Mexico, was marching north to take back San Antonio de Bexár and strangle the Texian’s revolution before it could gain any more momentum.

The siege of the Alamo lasted 13 days.

The Alamo had 18 serviceable cannons and approximately 150 men at the start of the siege. As the Mexican Army arrived, a parlay was called by one of the two Alamo Commanders, James Bowie, a famous adventurer and knife fighter. Green B. Jameson, chief engineer of the garrison met with Mexican officials. Santa Anna’s terms were surrender at discretion, meaning he would decide their fate. The other Alamo Commander, 26-year-old William B. Travis answered with a cannon shot from the 18-pounder cannon. The Siege of the Alamo had begun. Santa Anna ordered a red flag to be flown from San Fernando Church showing that no quarter would be given.

On February 24, 1836, with the garrison surrounded and the Texan Army at the Alamo outnumbered, one of the most famous letters in American history was written by William B. Travis. It was addressed, “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World.” This letter was a passionate plea for aid for the Alamo garrison. He ended the letter “Victory or Death” – the only outcome this battle could have. That letter left the Alamo and the siege continued.

On March 1, 1836, 32 men from the town of Gonzales arrived to aid the Alamo. This brought the number of defenders up to almost 200 men.

On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

On March 3, 1836, courier James Butler Bonham arrived at the Alamo with word from Robert Williamson informing Travis help was on the way. Unfortunately it would not arrive in time.

On March 5, 1836, Santa Anna held a council of war, setting forth this plan for a four pronged attack of the garrison.

Battle of the Alamo
At dawn on March 6, 1836, the 13th day of the siege, the Battle of the Alamo commenced. Fighting lasted roughly 90 minutes, and by daybreak all the Defenders had perished, including a former congressman from Tennessee, David Crockett. The loss of the garrison was felt all over Texas, and even the world. The Defenders were from many different countries, including some Defenders who were native-born Mexicans. Following the battle, Santa Anna ordered the Defender’s remains burned.

The question is, why was this battle considered so heroic when, in the end, the fort was lost and the defenders were slaughtered? The defenders died heroically, but what did they accomplish?

Rod Martin has an interesting perspective.

But beyond the unquestionable rightness of the Texian cause, the successful Revolution served to answer the burning geopolitical question of that era, namely, would America or Mexico — and would liberty or tyranny — dominate the New World?

Santa Anna had proclaimed himself “the Napoleon of the West”:  his ambitions were vastly greater than just holding a few farms on the Brazos.  Had he imposed his tyranny on the Texians, he would have been liberated to threaten — and possibly conquer — New Orleans, the continent’s single most strategic point.

Had Santa Anna taken New Orleans, he would have reversed Jefferson’s achievement in securing the Louisiana Purchase and accomplished what the British in 1815 could not: the reduction of the United States to a servile position. And with all commerce in the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi river basins bottled up at Santa Anna’s mercy, not only might America never have generated the capital, industrial strength and military might needed to become a great power, but an authoritarian Mexico might well have supplanted it, expanding throughout the West and the Caribbean Basin as well.

But for Houston’s victory at San Jacinto — but for Davy Crockett’s martyr’s death at the Alamo, enabling Houston’s triumph — the American experiment might well have come to nothing.  America might well have been recolonized in that era of global European expansion which saw India and China subjugated (as indeed Mexico was by France for a time, during the 1860s). And with the coming of the 20th Century, freedom might well have perished from the Earth.

In other words, if the defenders of the Alamo had not tied up Santa Anna in a siege, stalling him for those two weeks, Sam Houston and his army may not have been able to prepare themselves for the battle of San Jacinto seven weeks later. It was there that the battle cry, “remember the Alamo!” rang out, and that Santa Anna and his army were defeated.

As I said, I’m no Alamo historian, but I understand why it was so critical to the formation of the United States and to the liberty we enjoy.

Remember the Alamo!

And have a good weekend.

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The Broadside | Trump Delivers a Side-Winder and Exposes the True Conflict Between Left and Right

I watched Trump’s first joint address to Congress since retaking the White House and it was one for the history books. Here’s some highlights along with one simple observation I have.

This was a new one: Churlish Rep. Al Green gets booted after disrupting Trump’s speech and refusing to sit or to quiet down. “Remove this gentleman from the chamber.” I haven’t seen that before.

Trump on the border: “All we needed was a new president.” Trump calls out the lies that the Dems have told for the last four years while letting foreign invaders overrun our southern border.

Trump asked, presumably rhetorically, how many want to see the war in Ukraine go for another five years. Some Democrats applauded and Trump specifically called out Elizabeth Warren, using her preferred name, Pocahontas, who continued to applaud for FIVE MORE YEARS OF WAR while the cameras were on her.

Like a clapping seal that doesn’t know why it’s applauding. It just does because it’s been trained to.

Here’s the investments Trump has secured less than two months into his presidency:

In total, President Trump has secured nearly $2 trillion in new U.S. investments.

  • TSMC announced an unprecedented $100 billion investment in U.S.-based semiconductor chip manufacturing.
  • Apple announced a historic $500 billion investment that will create 20,000 new U.S.-based jobs.
  • President Trump announced the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure project in history, securing $500 billion in planned private sector investment — with major CEOs agreeing it would not have been possible without President Trump’s leadership.
  • President Trump secured a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties to build new U.S.-based data centers.
  • Wisconsin-based Clarios, a leader in low-voltage energy storage, announced a $6 billion plan to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing.
  • Eli Lilly and Company announced a $27 billion investment in its U.S.-based manufacturing.
  • Saudi Arabia declared its intention to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.
  • Taiwan pledged to boost its investment in the United States.
  • Electronics giants Samsung and LG “are considering moving their plants in Mexico to the U.S.” now that President Trump is back in office.

Needless to say, the Democrats sat on their hands for the vast majority of speech. Trump even addressed the obvious.

Full Text: “I look at the Democrats in front of me – I realize, there’s nothing I can say to make them happy, stand, or smile or applaud. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease…or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever. And these people – sitting RIGHT HERE – will not clap, stand or cheer for these achievements. They won’t, no matter what. 5 times I’ve been up here.”

The Democrats are reflexively, automatically, predisposed to oppose anything and everything that Trump represents, and nowhere was it more obvious than in the joint session of Congress tonight, as enthusiastic Republicans cheered and chanted USA! USA! USA! while the childish Democrats sat on their hands or held up their virtue signaling signs. The contrast between the two groups couldn’t have been clearer.

We used to be a country that agreed on what was important. What we disagreed on was how to address those issues. Democrats (generally) wanted bigger government intervention; Republicans (generally) wanted less.

Now, we can’t even agree on the issues. We’ve got one party who left the impression last night that they support taxes on tips, taxes on overtime, taxes on Social Security, the war in Ukraine, men participating in women’s sports; that they hate the popular vote, cutting waste, eliminating Social Security fraud; and that they couldn’t care less about every one of Trump’s special guests, including the mothers and sisters of children murdered by illegal aliens, a steel worker who has fostered more than 40 children, and a child battling brain cancer his whole life who was deputized as a Secret Service agent. The party of “joy” they’re not.

The Democrat party isn’t dead—yet, but they made it clear last night that it’s really not a fight between good ideas (left v. right), but a fight between good and evil.

Pick a side.

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The Broadside | Christianity’s Slide Into Obscurity Has Bottomed Out—For Now

Some 62 percent of U.S. adults currently describe themselves as Christians.

The decline in the number of Americans who identify as Christian appears to be slowing down after years of losses, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Wednesday.

The expansive Religious Landscape Study (RLS) study found the number of people in the U.S. who identify as Christian has been stable since 2019. It also discovered that the number of those who are unaffiliated with a religion, after years of uptick, has plateaued.

Around 62 percent of Americans identified as Christians. Some 40 percent were Protestant, 19 percent were Catholic, and 3 percent identified with other Christian groups, according to the survey.

The share of Americans who identify as Christians has been hovering in the 60s from 2019 to 2024. In 2023, it was 63 percent, down from 78 percent in 2007.

That the slide has stopped is good news but is tempered by the fact that only 62 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. We were at 78 percent less than twenty years ago.

That’s a steep drop.

Nearly 3 in 10 Americans, 29 percent, were religiously unaffiliated. Among those, 5 percent were atheist, 6 percent were agnostic and the other 19 percent said they identify as “nothing in particular,” Pew found. 

Approximately 7 percent of the U.S. population is non-Christian but religious: 2 percent were Jewish, while Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist were each at 1 percent, according to the poll. 

What’s fascinating is that our liberal or “progressive” friends, who support all manner of sexual deviancy, have become increasingly irreligious.

Researchers also noted that 37 percent of self-described liberals identified with Christianity, a 25-point drop from 2007 when it was 62 percent. Just more than half of liberals, 51 percent, said they have no religion, a 24-point jump from 2007’s 27 percent.

The Epoch Times adds:

Young adults also presented as far less religious than those of older generations—a fact that the study’s researchers noted could portend an eventual decline.

“It is inevitable that older generations will decline in size as their members gradually die,” the researchers wrote in their report. “We also know that the younger cohorts succeeding them are much less religious.

“This means that, for lasting stability to take hold in the U.S. religious landscape, something would need to change.”

That change could be on the horizon.

In the weeks since President Donald Trump took office, he has taken several steps to put Christianity front and center, from creating a new White House Faith Office led by Pastor Paula White-Cain to establishing a Justice Department task force to root out anti-Christian bias.

He has also vowed to create a Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty.

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 6, Trump lamented the decline of faith in the United States and called on the nation to “bring God back” into its life.

“We have to bring religion back,” he told lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “We have to bring it back much stronger. It’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last fairly long period of time.”

I’m not sure if Trump understands that Christianity is not a “religion,” which is a secular way of describing it. A religion is marked by rules and regulations; Christianity is about a personal relationship with God. Yes, we engage in worship and acts of service and read our bibles and pray, but those are expressions of gratitude and obedience, not a list of activities that we check off to keep God happy or to stay in His good graces.

Trump’s instincts are right, even though his call to “bring religion back much stronger” isn’t quite what we need. What we need is to humble ourselves and repent of our corporate sin, then encourage the act of making disciples, which is the way the Church has grown of the centuries.

We were once considered a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Trump can’t “make” America Christian again, but he can call attention to our need for God.