Category Archives: Daily Broadside

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Daily Broadside | Chicagoans Kick Lightfoot to the Curb

One of the things you’ll come to realize if you pay attention to politics long enough is that progressives — overwhelmingly Democrats — ruin everything they touch. Everything.

Public grade schools and high schools? Check.

Universities and colleges? Check.

Music and visual arts? Check.

Religion? Check.

Race relations? Check.

Sports? Check.

The Miss America pageant? Check.

The Boy Scouts? Check.

The military? Check.

Late night comedy? Check.

Classic books? Check.

Marriage and family? Check.

Free speech? Check.

Light bulbs? Check.

This is especially true of cities that haven’t elected a Republican or a conservative (there is often a difference) in years. Think of Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. All basket cases resembling third-world hellholes with homelessness, violence, urban decay and vacant city centers.

Enter Lori Lightfoot, the FIRST BLACK FEMALE LESBIAN mayor of Chicago, and now the FIRST BLACK FEMALE LESBIAN MAYOR of Chicago to lose reelection. According to the Daily Mail,

Following her concession speech, a reporter asked her if she was treated unfairly because of her race and gender, with Lightfoot answering: ‘I’m a black woman in America. Of course.’ 

The race card. And the misogyny card. And probably the unapproved sexuality card, too. If that’s all true, then how did she get elected four years ago? Did Chicago replace all its voters?

I’m sure it had nothing to do with the increase in violent crime by 52 percent over the course of her tenure.

Under Lightfoot, Chicago has seen soaring crime rates, which became a theme of her opponents’ criticism. In 2021, homicides in Chicago rose to their highest numbers in 25 years, outpacing other crime-ridden cities like New York City and Los Angeles. 

Throughout her tenure, the mayor has been blasted for her poor relationship with law enforcement, as the city’s police department lost a significant number of officers in recent years amid the rise in crime.

Vacancies in the city are up to 30 percent as businesses flee the crime, along with other disastrous metrics.

Ultimately, there was a 59 percent increase in murder citywide when comparing the 9th week of 2023 to the same time-period four years ago, which is right when Lightfoot was heading to a runoff with Toni Preckwinkle.

The four-year change also shows a 27 percent increase in robbery, 31 percent increase in theft and a massive 270 percent increase in the number of motor vehicle thefts.

In addition to rising crime – Lightfoot has overseen vacancy rates of nearly 30 percent after flagship stores on the Magnificent Mile bailed.

Huge brands like Macy’s, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap, Uniqlo and Timberland have all fled large premises since Covid shutdowns and ensuing riots. 

Some of the stores were also victims to the series of mass looting incidents that plauged major cities in 2021 and 2022.  

Many were driven away by soaring crime and violence, with the vacancy rate on the once tony shopping strip rising 10-fold since 2016, when it sat at just 3.6 percent, to the current 30.1 percent vacancy rate. 

The Magnificent Mile’s vacancy rate was under five percent just six years ago, according to NBC Chicago. 

So, ackshully, furreal!, Lightfoot getting the boot wasn’t due to any of these metrics but the fact that there are tens of thousands of racists and misogynists and homophobes in the city.

This really is MAGA country.

Leftists ruin everything they touch, then blame everyone but themselves when they suffer for it.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | To Blog or Not to Blog. That is the Question

It’s March 2023 and I’m starting the last month of my initial investment in this blog. If I keep going, I will have to renew a plan with my hosting company in the next 30 days.

When I started this blog on April Fool’s Day 2020, I wrote:

I’m launching daveolsson.com today without much fanfare but with a specific end in mind: becoming part of our national conversation about culture and politics. …

  1. I have a point of view that I think is under-represented in the national conversation. As a politically conservative evangelical Christian, not only is my point of view unappreciated by the culture at large, but the loudest voices seem to be openly hostile to such a viewpoint.
  2. I believe that whether or not my voice is “winning” in the marketplace of ideas, more citizens like me need to speak up. I’m nobody special; just a guy with a love of God and country who has a keyboard and an Internet connection. But there’s a lot of us out here and we need to be heard.

Over the years I’ve learned to be candid about what I think. Some people like it, some people don’t. For me, it’s too much work to make sure everybody’s happy. What you read here is one guy’s take on our shared American life as one nation, under God.

Here are some quick random notes about my experience off the top of my head:

  • I feel like after three years, I’m (finally) finding my voice, and my rhythm, as a blogger.
  • My audience size has remained modest (eh … relatively small). That’s okay because I knew it would take a while to build a following. Thanks to all of you for being a part of getting this project stood up — you’re like founding members or something!
  • When a reader provides feedback on the blog, either in the comments or offline, it is very encouraging because, on balance, it’s been a solitary effort without many cues to guide me. Is it making a difference? Is it having an impact on how people think?
  • I originally thought I’d do more long-form essay writing, but I’ve found that’s not practical since I can only blog in my discretionary time (which is limited). I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon.

Essentially, the blog is my running commentary on faith, culture and politics, using reports from a variety of sources as my slush pile. There is so much outlandish thinking and behavior in our country that I never seem to be at a loss for something to respond to.

One of the things I’d like to increase is the connection between what I’m reading and what the Bible has to say about it. Sometimes it’s obvious, but other times it’s more subtle. Eventually I’d like to start more often than not with a biblical theme and show how we ignore or honor it in our culture.

◦◦◦◦◦

All that to say that I’m thinking seriously about extending the life of this blog and would love to hear from you, my readers and subscribers. Tell me what you value about it and where you think I can do better.

While I never expect to make a living doing this, I’m considering adding a donation link (some blogs call it a “tip jar”) to help keep the lights on by covering the minimal costs of running my daily rag. Even a $10 donation per year from a reader or $2 per month would be a vote of confidence in the value of my work. Super affordable! Put a few of those donations together and suddenly it feels like a group effort.

Let me know if you’d entertain such an opportunity.

I’m proud of having done this for three years, making my best effort to write five days a week. I’ll be making a decision soon on whether to keep going.

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Daily Broadside | You Can’t Handle the Truth! Or Can You?

When I was in junior high I was friends with Scott,* one of the school’s popular kids who was an all-around athlete and a funny guy who others naturally gravitated towards. He was also somewhat of an arrogant prig because he was popular and tough, no one really challenged his place in the social pecking order, and he got a lot of laughs as a practical joker.

One year Scott took to tormenting another kid named Jim Bursh. Jim was a foot taller than my friend but seemed rather slow and socially awkward. Scott would follow Jim down the hall and loudly say his name, but drag it out as “Jim Burrrrsh,” as though he was a mentally-challenged 14-year-old. All of Scott’s groupies — including me — would get a laugh at Jim’s expense.

This went on for some time until one day, Scott was following Jim up the stairs from the lunch room. We were all tagging along and he started in again on him. “Jim Burrrshh … Jim Burrrrsh! … Jim BURRRRSH.”

As we got to the landing at the top of the stairs, with Scott still haranguing him, Jim suddenly, and with surprising speed, spun around and grabbed Scott by the back of the neck and bent him over the rail that kept us from falling into the stairwell. It was an act of raw power that stunned us all by how quickly and decisively he dominated Scott.

Jim then bellowed, “Don’t do that any more! Got it?” It would’ve been nothing for him to toss Scott over the railing onto the stairs below. Meekly, Scott said, “Yeah, got it.” Jim let go and walked away.

Thoroughly chastened and red-faced, Scott followed at a distance, surrounded by his awestruck and now silent posse. Needless to say, he left Jim alone from then on. The bully had run into someone who had decided enough was enough.

I see something like that story developing in our society. Over the last week I’ve come across three posts where the authors have declared that enough is enough.

Enough of what?

Enough of the Left and its irrational and destructive nonsense. Enough of insisting that men can be women. Enough of rewriting America’s history. Enough of the lies from our political leaders. Enough of grooming our children. Enough of demonizing whites as racist. Enough of wrecking our unique culture through open borders. Enough of the cultural Marxism. Enough of being silent in the hopes that we might not offend our opponents in the culture wars.

Steve Deace, an evangelical Christian and conservative activist, hosts an eponymous show on Blaze Media. On Monday last week he appeared on Tim Pool’s show Timcast IRL, where the topic turned to the war in Ukraine. Deace delivered an epic rant against the idea of the U.S. putting boots on the ground in that war zone.

This issue with Ukraine is my last nerve. And this is hard for me to say, as a kid who’s a child of the ’80s, who grew up in the “We’re America, bitch” ’80s, who wore Alex P. Keaton monogrammed sweater vests, okay? And, and got up in the middle of the night to cheer Reagan bombing Qaddafi back to the Neolithic period. This is hard for me to say, okay?

You’re taking my high school-age son to fight and die in Ukraine? Literally over my dead body. I’m never allowing that. I’m never letting you take him to die for your Habsburg Dynasty, World War I, needless 20-million pile-of-deaths replay over your elites’ pissing contest. Not happening. I don’t care what the threat is. I don’t care what the penalty is.

And if you think you’re drafting my daughters, get the camps ready, because you’re gonna need them. Never happening.

Enough is enough.

Matt Walsh posted a video on Valentine’s Day in which he spoke the unvarnished truth about Dylan Mulvaney, a man who dresses and “presents” as a woman (or “a girl” as Mulvaney says). The video got a lot of backlash from the usual suspects, but also a lot of “friendly fire” from those who identify as right-of-center.

It’s the follow up video, posted on Wednesday last week, in which Matt addresses his critics from the right with a doubling down.

Listen to the whole thing but here’s a brief transcript of his core argument.

In the culture war, I don’t think it’s possible to ‘go too far’ by speaking truth. The truth is the truth. It is what it is. It’s the reality. Are we going to defend it or are we going to conceal it? Are we going to embrace it or are we going to hide from it? You can’t have it both ways. . . .

And make no mistake, Dylan Mulvaney is our enemy. He is an open, visible, active and passionate advocate for the abuse of children, the war on fundamental truth, and the destruction of human society as we know it.

I’m not looking to reach an understanding with these people. I’m not interested in compromise and dialogue. For those who castrate children and attack the very concept of truth and erode the very foundations of human civilization, my goal is to defeat and humiliate and demoralize them. OK, I want to destroy everything they stand for.

Enough is enough.

Finally, here’s Lincoln Brown, a columnist for PJ Media and The Hill who on Thursday also declared enough is enough when it comes to the Left.

Having been raised a liberal who became a conservative, I have long been an advocate of dialogue. Of finding the middle way. Of reaching a consensus. Knowing both sides of the aisle as I do, I had thought that there might be some point at which our two sides might find common ground or a way of living with one another.

I will now finally admit that is simply not a possibility. I take no joy in that, but there comes a time when one must admit that compromise is impossible, and that to search for it involves capitulation with alleged human beings who have blinded themselves to all but the basest of pursuits and desires. There comes a time at which hope ends, and one realizes that we can no longer live with one another. It is a sad realization, but one that is based on a harsh, unforgiving reality. Long had I hoped that cooler heads might prevail, that we could see eye to eye on something. But whether it is because of the internet, our feckless leaders, or the inherent sinfulness of mankind, we must admit that the breach between the insanity of the Left and the rest of the world is simply too large and wide to bridge. It would take an act of God to bring about reconciliation. And for better or worse, He has chosen to leave us to our own devices. The Old Testament prophets warned that those who sought their will above all else would reap the whirlwind. And the people in power have done just that. How long they evade the chaos that they have seeded will be up to the Almighty. . . .

Changing focus for a moment, I really did want to find common ground with you people on the Left. I agree with you on the need to solve poverty, and on many points about the environment. I agree with you about Big Pharma and insurance issues. There were so many places we could have worked together. But sadly, even that part of me that was raised a Democrat has come to realize that you care nothing for anyone but yourselves. You traffic in bodies. You traffic in lives. You traffic in souls. To my sorrow, there can be no common ground.

Enough. is. enough.

These three men are demonstrating what used to be common among Americans — a backbone and a commitment to the truth. They have convictions they aren’t willing to compromise. They’ve found a hill they’re willing to die on. They’ve reached the point where they have to say, “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”

All of us will sooner or later be forced to make a similar decision. Christians, especially, will eventually have to declare their allegiance to one side or the other. It may be safe to stay silent and out of the battle, ignoring the walls closing in the hopes it will all just blow over and we can go back to our comfortable lives in which we go along to get along, but that’s not going to happen.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6)

You will have to decide. Will you compromise your convictions or will you gather your courage and determine to give no quarter? How much “Jim BURRRRSH” will you take before you decide that enough is enough, you stiffen your spine, and you proactively stand for the truth against the lies of this age?

*Names changed to protect the unsuspecting.

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Daily Broadside | Bumbling Pete Shows Up A Day After Trump and 20 Days After Disaster

One of the big stories of the last weeks has been the massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which spewed toxic chemicals into the air and water. The current administration not only refused to send help via the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), but neither the Resident or Transportation Secretary Mayor Pete bothered to show up as a matter of leadership or good will.

Instead, Brandon showed up in Ukraine to hug-a-thug and Mayor Pete went missing until spotted by a lone Daily Caller reporter who asked him about his non-response to the disaster — at which point Booty-Judge refused to answer because he was on “personal time” and then stopped to take a photo of the pestering reporter.

Why the photo? Probably to add to the straight-shooting FBI’s growing list of white-wing terrorists who, as we all know, are the greatest threat to our precious democracy (*spit*). Creep.

In the meantime, President Trump visited the traumatized town and brought with him pallets of bottled water and food for the residents, then bought McDonald’s for the entire fire department and police department, and all diners inside the restaurant.

When a reporter shouted a question to Trump just before he left, he gave an obvious answer that underscored the difference between a man of and for the people, and a man of and for himself.

“Get over here.”

From there, President Trump headed to the East Palestine Fire Department, where he delivered an uplifting message to the community.

“We’re here today in East Palestine to show our love and support for our fellow Americans in this hour of need,” Trump said at the fire station.

“To the people of East Palestine and to the nearby communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, we have heard you loud and clear. You are not forgotten,” the former president continued. “You are not forgotten.”

“We stand with you. We pray for you. And we will stay with you in your fight to help answer and get the accountability that you deserve,” Trump added.

Once Trump announced his visit, FEMA suddenly revealed that, by golly, assistance was available after all. And once Trump actually visited on Wednesday, Mayor Pete showed up the next day (yesterday) — nearly three weeks later and after taking his “me” time.

It was an opportunity for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who nearly three weeks after the derailment visited East Palestine on Thursday, to claim responsibility and demonstrate his ability to reinstate safety and security. Instead, he laughs about his failures, blames the Trump administration and gives speeches about racism in transportation rather than adequately addressing immediate concerns.

Mayor Pete tried to explain his lame and late response to the disaster.

‘What I tried to do is balance two things: My desire to be involved and engaged and on the ground — which is how I’m generally wired to act — and my desire to follow the norm of Transportation secretaries, allowing NTSB to really lead the initial stages of the public-facing work. I’ll do some thinking about whether I got that balance right, but I think the most important thing is first of all making sure the residents here have what they need,’ said the Transportation secretary.  

In the face of mounting criticism, Buttigieg also blamed the Trump administration and rail companies for undermining safety regulations he says led to the crash. 

‘One thing he [Trump] can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration.’

Why do these woke incompetents constantly fail upwards?

Brandon doesn’t care and won’t visit. Given that Mayor Pete showed up 20 days after the fact, he might as well have just stayed home and took “personal time” for all the good it did.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Guess What? You’re Paying Retired Ukrainians the 20 Percent Now That You’ll Lose in 10 Years

I don’t know how bloggers who write every day manage the curveballs that life throws at them, or even how they make blogging a priority when competing priorities squeeze down on what discretionary time they have. I’ve got a little of both (curveballs and competing priorities) going on right now, so I’ve been offline for a couple of days.

The Resident keeps ramping up his support for Ukraine in their war with Russia. He “snuck” into Kyiv on America’s “President’s Day” for a five-hour photo op with Zelensky, promising more money, artillery, ammunition and US support for the long haul. While he was there, the air raid siren went off, even though the US had told Vladimir Putin that our so-called “president” would be in Ukraine and to not nuke him while he was there.

The siren was there for effect, to make it seem more dangerous than it was, and thereby make Biden seem more courageous than he is. Indeed, the legacy media went out of its way to laud him as some kind of hero.

So the Resident goes jet-setting to some country that no one knows about and which has no strategic value to the US while ignoring the immediate crisis in East Palatine, Ohio while Americans are suffering under the neglect of his administration. But most infuriating of all is the revelation that the dollars the U.S. government takes from me in taxes, without my permission and without me having a say in it, are going to fund Ukrainian pensions.

As American taxpayers paying into Social Security today stare down the barrel toward substantial cuts to their own benefits, estimated to take place in 2034, they can at least take solace in knowing that all categories of Ukrainian pensioners will get a 20% raise in March 2023.  “As early as this March,” says Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, “the government will index pensions by 20%” for about 10 million Ukrainians.

Indexing the payments “is not mandatory according to the Law of Ukraine on the State Budget for 2023,” but benevolent President Zelensky has instructed them to reprice the benefits upwards anyway.

And why wouldn’t he?  His government is swimming in American cash.

Americans have spent more than $100 billion on aid to Ukraine.  And, as the notoriously corrupt Ukrainian government is undoubtedly well aware, money is fungible.

I dunno, during an existential struggle for survival, don’t you and your countrymen sacrifice everything to preserve and sustain your existence? Nothing else matters, right?

Nope.

But we all know that few Americans would have signed on to billions in foreign aid if the impetus was to preserve Ukraine’s pension infrastructure.  What’s truly amazing, though, is that Joe Biden and the media are just coming right out and saying exactly that — the government is using your money to pay Ukraine’s obligations to ten million of its pensioners.  American aid to Ukraine, Biden says, is “going to allow pensions and social support to be paid to the Ukrainian people.”

Biden and his henchmen are running the US economy into the ground, wrecking our 401ks with inflation and saddling our children’s children and their children with mountains of debt while padding Ukrainian retirement accounts with your money. And don’t you get any ideas about getting a 20% raise in what Social Security owes you.

This cycle will continue until roughly 2034, until the IOUs from the Treasury run out, and the Treasury is no longer obligated to pay for the shortfall between what is owed to beneficiaries and payroll tax receipts.  God only knows what the national debt will be at that time, but what we do know is that you, your children, and grandchildren will be on the hook for whatever is owed by the Treasury.  And at that time, again, barring any intercession, all Americans on Social Security are expected to get a 20%+ pay cut.

It’s all I can do to bite my tongue so that I don’t say something I’ll regret.

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Daily Broadside | Be Sure To Celebrate All the Presidents Today

As a kid I remember having Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays off from school in February every year. Since 1971 all of our presidents are ‘celebrated’ in a homogenized “President’s Day” on Washington’s birthday. A bill passed by Congress in 1968, called the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” consolidated the two birthdays and renamed it for the purpose of creating a three-day weekend.

It was fun having a day off from school but I don’t remember my parents making any effort to impress on me the importance of Washington or Lincoln to our way of life. I don’t fault them for that; I’m sure that they, like most Americans of that era, took for granted that an abiding sense of gratitude and freedom would be passed along through our shared culture and values. However, their lack of concern to pass along the weight of Washington’s and Lincoln’s contributions to the life and preservation of our union is reflected in the formal law passed by Congress — along with others that have shifted the priorities of what we choose to recognize.

For the sake of convenience and leisure, we anonymized two holidays and lumped the two luminaries in with every other president we’ve had. It’s the principle of the participation trophy: if everyone is special, then no one is special.

Exactly what — and who — are we celebrating on President’s Day? Are we just observing the fact that we have presidents? Is that somehow noble? More noble than kings or prime ministers?

Is that worth a day off?

Are all of our presidents worthy of celebrating? Are some more worthy than others? Do we really want to lump the likes of Carter and Obama in with true statesmen like Washington and Lincoln?

My advice to families with young children: make it a point to emphasize the lives and impact of Washington and Lincoln and why they are worth remembering. Add Reagan in there, too.

If I had my way, I’d go back to celebrating Washington and Lincoln separately. If Mondays are still important, give us two three-day weekends in February — one for Washington and one for Lincoln. But if you can’t do that, then get rid of “President’s Day” altogether. It’s meaningless and makes a mockery of the observances we used to have.

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Daily Broadside | Airlines Suck But Congress Will Totally Get Them This Time — Really!

It’s been a minute but I’m back from a high stakes weekend of travel to celebrate a daughter who got engaged. That was fantastic but the travel left a lot to be desired. I flew Spirit and I don’t have to tell you that as a low-budget airline, you get what you pay for.

Our flight out included a stop over in Las Vegas at the Harry Reid International Airport. I learned it was called that on this trip and almost had a coronary. Harry Reid was one of the worst, most corrupt and disgraceful senators in our nation’s history. He’s the one that invoked the “nuclear option,” reducing the number of votes needed to overcome a filibuster from 60 to a simple majority for executive appointments and most judicial nominations.

That move, of course, has benefitted Republicans as much as it did Democrats. But it degraded the Senate.

Back to Spirit Airlines. Here’s what we encountered using their “service.” Cancelled flight. Rebooked for the next day on another flight but not the one requested and agreed to. First leg of the flight delayed by an hour. When we landed in Las Vegas, we had to wait on the tarmac while our gate was cleared from an earlier flight.

While waiting for the second leg of our flight, our gate was changed from one terminal to another. Then, second leg of the flight delayed — by two hours, which meant we landed at O’Hare at 2:00 AM.

Throughout the ordeal, Spirit sent us several emails and texts that ended the same way: “We’re sorry for this delay.”

Changes to travel plans aren’t ideal? When I make the change, it’s because it’s beneficial. When someone I’m paying to facilitate my travel makes the change, it’s a major inconvenience. Two different things and don’t conflate the two.

They hate running late as much as I do? Could’ve fooled me. I’ve traveled with them enough to know (and know others who travel with them) that running late and giving “guests” the run around is how they operate. If they hated it, you’d expect they’d “get going” on fixing their logistics as soon as possible.

Have you ever noticed that when YOU want to change a flight, you get charged for the inconvenience to the airline? Ever noticed that when YOU are delayed, the plane doesn’t wait for you, but if the plane is running late, you’re expected to wait for them?

When their incompetence as a business inconveniences YOU, you get a “sorry” and have to spend your hard-earned money on overpriced airport food and drink.

I remembered hearing about an airline passenger bill of rights, so I looked it up. Did you know that Congress, that inept body of immoral grifters, has tried a number of times to “protect” airline passengers? It started in 1989 with the first Passenger Bill of Rights, followed by the Airline Passenger Defense Act of 1990. Neither of them passed.

Then came the the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights of 1999, the Passenger Entitlement and Competition Enhancement Act, and the Senate’s version of the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, the Airline Passenger Fairness Act. This was all followed by the Customer’s First plan proposed by the Air Transport Association and its member airlines in June 1999 as an effort to avoid congressional intervention.

Needless to say, none of that worked.

Then there was an event in Detroit in 2001 that kicked off another round of what were referred to as “airline passenger bill of rights” legislation.

Four of the bills, S. 200, the Air Travelers Fair Treatment Act (Senator Reid), H.R. 332, the Aviation Consumer Right to Know Act (Representatives DeFazio and Slaughter), H.R. 384, the Airline Passenger Fair Treatment Act (Representatives Sweeny), and H.R. 907, the Airline Competition and Passenger Rights Act (Representative Dingell) all revived numerous provisions from legislation first introduced in the 106th Congress. Following release of the IG report on the airlines’ customer service performance, two new bills, S. 319, the Airline Customer Service Improvement Act (Senators McCain, Hollings, Hutchison) and S. 483, the Fair Treatment of Airline Passengers Act (Senator Wyden), were introduced.

Of course, “none of these free-standing passenger rights bills were enacted.”

And now, in an unbelievable coincidence of timing with my adventures this past weekend,

Democrat Sens. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have introduced an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights that would require airlines to refund tickets and compensate passengers for delays and cancellations caused by the airlines.

[…]

If passed, the package could also mean the end of shrinking seat sizes, at least until the Department of Transportation implements a minimum seat size requirement.

I second that requirement. My knees were pressed against the seat back in front of me. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the seats on Spirit don’t recline. You’re strapped with a seat belt to a barely disguised ironing board that’s folded in half.

Needless to say, we’re done with Spirit Airlines.

This new legislation is because of the Southwest Airlines meltdown in December that saw some 16,000 flights cancelled. Barn door, meet horse.

Do we really think that after almost 35 years of “trying” this effort will yield any results?

Here’s what I think. I think our legislators are a bunch of make-work scammers who claim to be working for the American people, but who are a hive-mind of ineffective posers who collect their checks and go to all the right parties.

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Daily Broadside | This Administration Is Recklessly Abusing Its Power

When I was a kid we used to line up in the school hallway with our backs against a wall and cover our heads with our arms. We did it two or three times a year. This was how the teachers prepared us for the nuclear strike that the Russians were expected to unleash on us at any moment.

Well, it may be time to start drilling our children again and getting into the act ourselves. It seems as though Brandon is itching to start World War III with the Russians.

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.

If this is true — that the current administration sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines last September — they not only committed an act of war, they deprived our allies of cheap, natural gas over a long, cold winter.

It never made sense to me that Russia was being blamed for taking out their own pipelines. If you ask, Cui bono? it’s tough to make a case that it’s the Russians. Why would they cut off some 45 percent of their annual budget? It makes zero sense.

In December of 2021, two months before the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a newly formed task force—men and women from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments—and asked for recommendations about how to respond to Putin’s impending invasion.

It would be the first of a series of top-secret meetings, in a secure room on a top floor of the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, that was also the home of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). There was the usual back and forth chatter that eventually led to a crucial preliminary question: Would the recommendation forwarded by the group to the President be reversible—such as another layer of sanctions and currency restrictions—or irreversible—that is, kinetic actions, which could not be undone?

What became clear to participants, according to the source with direct knowledge of the process, is that Sullivan intended for the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines—and that he was delivering on the desires of the President.

So the Resident not only authorized the plan but was the driving force behind the plan — hard as that is to believe.

Over the next several meetings, the participants debated options for an attack. The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes. “This is not kiddie stuff,” the source said. If the attack were traceable to the United States, “It’s an act of war.”

You don’t say.

While Trump was in office, we had the first administration in decades who didn’t start a new conflict somewhere in the world. But now that the Adults are Back in Chargeᵀᴹ we have Chinese spy balloons floating at will across the fruited plain as the mediocre clown installed in the White House pulls some stunt guaranteed to start a war with a nuclear power while dumping our leading edge technological war machines in Afghanistan for the Russians and Chinese to reverse engineer.

It’s madness.

Not only that, the report by Seymour Hersh also explains that the saboteurs found a way to bypass telling Congress what they were up to.

There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City. The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.

Here again we have unelected deep state bureaucrats skirting our laws by making plans without oversight that could potentially lead the U.S. into a war. Just like General Mark Millie Vanilli who said he’d give the Chinese a heads up if then-President Trump planned to wage war against them and others who recently admitted that they never told Trump about Chinese balloons sailing through U.S. airspace while he was president.

These are acts of treason.

It’s terrifying that we have a military operating off the leash. It’s unconstitutional and needs to be stopped.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Radical Trans Activists Storm Oklahoma Capital to Prevent the Will of the People Being Carried Out

You are forgiven if you mistake this mob action for an insurrection that Threatens Our Precious Democracy.ᵀᴹ I’ve got it on reliable authority that an insurrection is when a violent mob takes over a building with the intent of stopping the will of the people as expressed through their elected officials.

‘Trans Lives Matter’ protesters occupy Oklahoma State Capitol: ‘This is our house!’

Hundreds of “Trans Lives Matter” protesters gathered at the Oklahoma state Capitol Monday to demonstrate against legislation that would restrict gender transition-related medical care.

Videos showed protesters chanting “this is our house,” and “protect trans kids,” and holding signs that read, “Protect trans rights” and “My body, my freedom,” outside the Capitol building and inside the rotunda.

The protest took place during Gov. Kevin Stitt’s State of the State address, in which he called on the legislature to pass a law banning gender transition medical treatment for minors.

“Inside the rotunda,” you say? Say, how did they get in there? Are We the People allowed inside DURING THE STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS?

I bet that AOC almost died during this protest not-an-insurrection.

How do we know this mostly peaceful storming and occupation of the Oklahoma capital wasn’t a plot to kidnap the governor who is literally inside the chamber? ISN’T THAT DANGEROUS?

Please note the warning that Twitter has helpfully placed over the content of Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt receiving a standing ovation after calling for the legislature “to send me a bill that bans all gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors in the state of Oklahoma!”

Elon Musk-owned Twitter is telling any mentally confused snowflakes who happen to come across Dahm’s tweet that they should be prepared for speech that is “literal violence” should they hear it.

Twitchy also noticed the hypocrisy.

Transgender rights activists stormed the Oklahoma Capitol this week, to demand ‘care’ for transgender youth. We’re not even going to get into what that entails.

What is interesting is how this story is being framed. Suddenly, this type of behavior is not a threat to democracy. The same people who have been hyping the ‘insurrection’ of January 6th for two years are nowhere to be found.

When trans extremists force their way into the capital rotunda, it’s a “gathering to protest.” When the Capital police allow patriotic Americans into the rotunda, it’s a “violent insurrection.”

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Daily Broadside | Devil Worship Takes Center Stage at the Grammys

Well, the Chinese Balloon Bugaloo was brought to an ignominious end when it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after it had completed its mission of surveying the United States. You can bet that the Chinese had already downloaded everything they wanted or needed off the surveillance equipment hanging from the balloon, so the fact that our military is collecting the wreckage to investigate what it was capable of is of little use.

Plus, I don’t believe a single thing anyone in authority tells me now, whether it’s Brandon, the DOJ, CNN or Pfizer. Why should I? They’ve been lying through their teeth to us for the last six years and probably for decades before that.

We no longer live in a country where you can trust your institutional leaders because your institutional leaders have proven to be untrustworthy. That’s no longer a country that’s truly free. I feel it every day — the contraction of my freedom.

It’s inevitable for a country that has abandoned God. Did you see the Grammys last night? Sam Smith, who “identifies” as “non-binary” and Tim “Kim” Petras, who got gender reassignment surgery at the age of 16, the youngest person in the world to do so, teamed up to perform a satanic ritual broadcast across the country.

Here’s Matt Walsh’s take on it.

We used to condemn devil worshippers. Now we worship them.

Despite its length, I recommend to you this article about keeping a republic by Elizabeth Eastman. Here’s a key section, but read the whole thing.

Despite Franklin’s doubts about the newly drafted Constitution, he sought to persuade his fellow delegates to sign the document. He spoke candidly to them.

“I agree to this Constitution, with all its Faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution: For when you assemble a Number of Men to have the Advantage of their joint Wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those Men all their Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views.“

Similar to the qualification in his response to Elizabeth Powel, “a republic . . . if you can keep it,” Franklin included another qualification in his speech to the delegates: “there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administred;” A well-drafted Constitution is a first step,  but his added requirement that it must be well administered is necessary for it to be a blessing to the people. Those who work in government—legislators, the president, judges, and officials—contribute to a well-administered government.

Franklin gave a vote of confidence to the work that he and his fellow delegates had just completed when he added, “I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years.” He did not say that it would be well administered forever but a course of years. Would it be 10 years, 50 years, or 100 years? Even though Franklin’s fellow delegates heard this speech more than 200 years ago, questioning whether the current American government is well-administered and a blessing to the people engages citizens in a continuous assessment of their government.

Franklin’s warning that “[it] can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other” links government to the character of the people. This prompts the question: what is required of a people to maintain a good government and their liberty?

My emphasis. What is required of a people to maintain a good government and their liberty? A good character. Remember again my favorite quote from John Adams: “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

We’re no longer “a moral and religious People.” Not in the way to which Adams was referring. We’re still religous; just not toward the God of the Bible.

Performances like Sam Harris and “Kim” Petras gave us last night are ghastly illuminations of the craven depravity into which we have sunk. That we’re expected to applaud the evil so plainly displayed before our very eyes is why we can’t expect to survive as a nation of free people. We can’t govern ourselves, much less govern everybody else. It necessarily devolves into a Despotic Government.