A truck driver was arrested at the U.S./Mexico border with roughly 3,000 pounds of meth hidden inside a large shipment of carrots.
On the positive side, this could explain Bugs Bunny.
*.*
Wal-Mart, 7-11 and Chick-fil-A are all experimenting in certain markets with drone delivery.
My question:
Hey Total Wine, what are YOU guys waiting for?
*.*
Oneliners:
Elton John bought his pet rabbit a treadmill; It's a little fit bunny.
BINO: Billionaire in name only.
Things I have in common with a raccoon-dark circles around the eyes, eats junk, cute, a little chubby, I will fight you, possibly rabid.
Hear me out: Party at my house where we sit around and fold clothes.
I started jogging today; I didn't want to, but the ice cream truck didn't stop.
Mr. Rogers did not adequately prepare me for the people in my neighborhood.
Just heard my knee crack so loud, I expected to glow in the dark.
I've never seen anyone jogging and smiling at the same time, so that's all I need to know.
You know you're getting old when your heated car seat is no longer for warmth, but for back pain.
I guess apparently, I've reached the age where I can hide my own Easter eggs.
*.*
I asked the waitress, "What's the duck like?"
She responded, "Well, it's like a chicken, except it can swim."
*.*
Hollywood hasn't remade Spiderman in a couple of weeks.
I hope everyone's OK.
Quote of the Times;
“I think it’s obvious to everyone that the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in any sense of the word.” - Vladimir Putin
Link of the Times;
In The Spirit Of Russian 'Total War'
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/in-the-spirit-of-russian-total-war
Issue of the Times;
Christ Is King and I Don’t Care If That Makes Me Antisemitic by Andrew Torba
In light of Candace Owens and The Daily Wire “ending their relationship” last week after the factual statements she made about Israel and Jews, I think it’s a good time to answer a serious question from a Biblical perspective that far too many American Christians get wrong: just who are God’s Chosen People?
Pastor Andrew Isker wrote an excellent piece on the subject a few weeks ago and I encourage you all to read it with eyes to see. American Christianity has been utterly devoid of the orthodox, historical, and Biblical perspective on this topic for far too long, but thankfully many Christians are waking up to the truth of the matter.
When people like Candace Owens speak these truths and stand their ground despite being “canceled” more people come to see this truth with their own eyes. I encourage you to pray for Candace and her family because her journey in fighting for the truth has only just begun. We must stand with her against these wicked and evil people.
They will stop at nothing to silence and intimidate her, trust me I’ve lived it. The past few years have been very difficult for me. I’ve faced an onslaught of stalkers, doxxing, harassment, and credible threats of violence against my family because I dare to proclaim the truth of God’s Word on the internet in front of millions of people and provide a platform for millions of others to do the same thing. When the world is telling you that you cannot proclaim certain truths about God’s Word you have a duty and an obligation to share those truths even more. This is a requirement. You cannot pick and choose which parts of God’s Word you want to defend and believe in. It’s all or nothing.
While these trials in my own life have certainly been challenging they have been worth it. More and more people are waking up to the reality of who is really running this country into the ground. The truth of this reality cannot be contained by any amount of censorship. Candace is very brave for speaking about these things from her very large platform and we must stand with her amidst these attacks. She could have kept her mouth shut, kept her head down low, and ignored the patterns of behavior and truth that is there plainly to see, but she didn’t. Far too many “influencers” take the money and keep their mouths shut. Candace did what Christians are commanded to do: speak the truth boldly.
I don’t think many of you realize what time it is. In the past few months alone both South Dakota and Georgia governors signed bills codifying the IHRA definition of antisemitism into state law. This definition includes claims of Jews killing Jesus being “antisemitism.” Guess what that means, Christian? You can no longer share Bible verses such as Matthew 27:24-25, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15, and many others which clearly and unequivocally state that the Jews killed Jesus Christ. The Stone Choir Podcast recently released an incredible episode on this subject. If you only listen to one podcast this year I highly encourage you to let it be this episode. You should also share it with your Pastor or Priest.
https://stone-choir.com/the-required-confession/
Let’s also not forget Rabbi Ron DeSantis and his recent flight to Israel to sign similar anti-1A legislation for the state of Florida making it illegal to pass out flyers in the street that Jews find offensive. Flyers that happen to contain some of these very Bible verses that I mentioned above as well as other factual and verifiable information on them.
“Communist China” isn’t doing this. “The radical left” isn’t doing this.
Red state governors are doing it at the behest of their Jewish donors and Zionist “Christians” are standing by and letting it happen.
Christ is King
For several years now I’ve ended all of my emails and blog posts with the phrase “Jesus Christ is King.” Asserting the Kingship of King Jesus makes His enemies tremble. Simply invoking His name in conversation will make them cower in fear. There is power in His name and there is supreme authority in asserting His Kingship, which is precisely why these demons are trying to prevent you from saying “Christ is King” by calling it “antisemitic.”
Shortly after Candace Owens started proclaiming “Christ is King” in front of her millions of followers many Christ-hating Jewish leaders started attacking her character on X. This is a common occurrence when prominent figures in conservative circles proclaim the name of Christ in conversation and it’s why unfortunately many Christians in conservative media circles rarely bring up their faith or talk about Jesus at all.
Candace fired back at these despicable rabbis with factual and verifiable information about the state of Israel and the nature of political and social influence that Jews have in our country. Candace’s Jewish boss Ben Shapiro didn’t like this one bit and so now she no longer works at the Daily Wire.
Following her departure a familiar narrative broke out from Conservative Inc circles. The claim that saying “Christ is King” is “antisemitic” when it is said to an unbelieving Jew. New “sins” are being fabricated from thin air not by the Christless pagans on the left, but by those who claim to be Christians on the conservative right. Andrew Klaven, an ethnically Jewish convert to Christianity who also works for the Daily Wire, did a segment on this controversy following Candace’s departure and made this claim.
His segment is so bad on so many levels. It hurts my heart that many sincere Christians will listen to this man and take what he says here seriously, but make no mistake this is straight from the pit of hell. Like many others Klaven says that those who proclaim Christ’s Kingship are antisemitic. This entire segment is about him elevating his Jewish ethnic identity above his identity in Christ. He is not concerned that the Kingship of his Savior is being attacked, he is instead concerned that his ethnic tribe is being offended by that Kingship.
He is in error and should be rebuked.
Klaven then continues to bear false witness against fellow believers in the segment by claiming that those of us who proclaim that Christ is King also believe that God has abandoned the His Chosen People and that He has broken His promises.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
None of us believe God has abandoned His Chosen People. First of all the Bible is very clear: God’s Chosen People are Christians, not unbelieving Christ-rejecting Jews (1 Peter 2:9.) God did not abandon the Jews, they abandoned Him when they killed and rejected His Son Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 2:14-15)
None of us believe God has broken His promises. All of His promises were fulfilled in Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20) There are no special side promises to unbelieving Christ-hating Jews. They missed the boat 2,000 years ago. The good news is they can still get back on the boat if they repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is Christianity 101. Stating these facts isn’t “antisemitic” and even if it was it wouldn’t matter: Christians are required to affirm these facts because this is plainly what the Word of God says. When you deny the Word of God to appease the feelings of a Christ-rejecting Jew you are sitting at a table that Jesus flipped over and denying Christ Himself.
The very worst part of Klaven’s segment on this topic is when he tells us about his “friend” Ben Shapiro. He claims that if Ben were to embrace Jesus Christ it would cause “devastation” for his life. He would be worse off. Klaven apparently believes God wants Ben to continue to reject His Son. With friends like this who needs enemies? This is madness. As Christians our heart longs for the salvation of our unsaved friends and family. My own heart longs for Ben Shapiro to repent and accept Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior. It’s unthinkable that Klaven would say this as a Christian.
So Who Are God’s Chosen People?
Those who are in Christ, regardless of ethnicity, are part of Abraham’s seed. Those who deny the son, regardless of ethnicity, do not have the Father. Galatians 3:29, 1 John 2:23
Romans 9:6-7 states “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.”
In Romans 11, Paul uses the metaphor of an olive tree. The natural branches (Jews) were *broken off* because of unbelief, and wild branches (Gentiles) were grafted in. Yet there’s hope that the natural branches can be grafted back in ONLY if they accept Jesus Christ—who is the root. (Revelation 22:16)
The Old Covenant was completely fulfilled and rendered *obsolete* with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, as indicated in Hebrews 8:13. This marks a transition to the New Covenant, which is open to all through faith in Jesus Christ
No one who rejects Jesus Christ has any covenant with God simply because of their ethnic background. “God’s Chosen People” initially referred to the Israelites but has now been expanded to include all who believe in Jesus Christ, irrespective of ethnic background. This is based on passages like Galatians 3:28-29, which emphasize unity in Christ regardless of ethnic distinctions. What are God’s people chosen for? The answer in both the new and old covenants is simple: Jesus Christ. You can’t reject Him and be part of God’s Chosen People. Period.
If unbelieving Jews aren’t God’s Chosen People then what are they?
“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). This verse highlights that at the heart of being antichrist is the denial of the core Christian belief in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God.
The concept also extends beyond individuals to what John calls the “spirit of the antichrist,” which was already at work in the world during his time (1 John 4:3). This refers to a broader movement or attitude that opposes or seeks to replace Christ, which is exactly what modern Jews wish to do today—thus making them antichrist.
So when they call you “antisemitic” you need to be calling them antichrist, because they are. One of those words is in the Bible, the other is made up by antichrist Jews. If that offends you, take it up with God.
Make no mistake about it: the demons attacking the Kingship of Christ during Holy Week is no coincidence, but rest assured brothers and sisters: the gates of hell will not prevail.
Christ is King, and I don’t care if that makes me antisemitic.
Deal with it.
Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus Christ is King
News of the Times;
A Dehumanizing Corruption Story From India:
https://bearingarms.com/ranjit-singh/2024/03/11/a-dehumanizing-corruption-story-from-india-reminds-me-again-why-the-second-amendment-is-sacrosanct-n1224135
Honolulu PD Accused of Slow-Walking Concealed Carry Applications:
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2024/03/11/honolulu-pd-accused-of-slow-walking-concealed-carry-applications-n1224138
South Carolina Becomes 29th State To Allow Carrying Firearms Without A License:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/south-carolina-becomes-29th-state-allow-carrying-firearms-without-license
This is why EU diplomacy is practically dysfunctional:
https://www.rt.com/news/594286-main-problem-eu-diplomacy/
Drops 'Duty, Honor, Country' from mission statement:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/west-point-military-academy-drops-055505015.html
A Tale of Two Heathers:
https://sigmagame.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-heathers
Canada Now Euthanizing Autistic People:
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/03/28/canada-now-euthanizing-autistic-people-n3785591
90% of U.S. Cheese Contains GMO Made by Pfizer
https://greenmedinfo.com/content/90-us-cheese-contains-gmo-made-pfizer
llegal Alien Lists All the Things New York City is Giving Him for FREE:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/watch-illegal-alien-lists-all-things-new-york/
Calif. fast-food chains slash workers:
https://nypost.com/2024/03/25/business/california-chains-slash-workers-as-20-an-hour-minimum-wage-looms/
California Synagogue Leases Space to Mosque:
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/03/24/california-synagogue-leases-space-to-mosque-to-ease-tensions-but-a-lovefest-doesnt-exactly-break-out-n4927603
The Blatant Luciferian Symbolism in Justin Timberlake’s “No Angels”:
https://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/the-blatant-luciferian-symbolism-in-justin-timberlakes-no-angels/
Social Media Personality Identified as Assailant Who Allegedly Punched Multiple Women:
https://resistthemainstream.com/fringe-political-figure-and-social-media-personality-identified-as-assailant-who-allegedly-punched-multiple-women/
How Phones Warped Gen Z:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/24/the-anxious-generation-qa-00147880
Europe's First Civilization: the Vinca Culture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7L7KZFrACc&ab_channel=DanDavisHistory
Assert?
Chosen?
Chuck Norris took a lie detector test one time.
The machine confessed to everything.
*.*
The movie "Late Night With The Devil" made $666,666 last Sunday.
I honestly don't know what possessed me to say that.
*.*
If you’ve had your fill of German terms of endearment and want to learn how to insult someone instead, look no further. Some of these insults are amusingly innocent-sounding, while others are pretty devastating so let’s hope you don’t wind up on the receiving end of one of those.
Here are 30 of the best German insults:
1. Arschgeige
Someone who doesn’t perform a particular task very well can be called a “butt violin,” or arschgeige.
2. Bananenbieger
Someone who’s engaged in a pointless task, who can’t concentrate, or has no direction in life can be called a bananenbieger, or “banana bender.”
3. Erbsenzähler
A “pea counter” is a nitpicker who obsesses over the little details. Similarly, you can call an overly pedantic person who always plays by the rules an ameisentätowierer, or “ant tattooist.”
4. Lustmolch
This word literally translates to “pleasure newt,” which is what you’d call someone who can’t get enough horizontal refreshment (a delightful 19-century slang term for sex).
5. Arsch mit ohren
A “butt with ears”—or, put simply, a complete ignoramus.
6. Evolutionsbremse
An “evolutionary brake” is an unintelligent person whose very existence on Earth hinders the advancement of the human species, so to speak.
7. Einzeller
In a similar vein, this word means a “single-cell organism.”
8. Hosenscheißer
These “trouser-poopers” are cowards.
9. Dünnbrettbohrer
A “driller of thin planks” is someone who takes the easy way out and does the bare minimum.
10. Spargeltarzan
This imaginative insult translates to “asparagus Tarzan,” and describes someone who is thin and gangly.
11. Kotzbrocken
A “lump of puke.”
12. Heißluftgebläse
A “hot air gun” is someone who talks too much, but about nothing. You can also call someone a labertasche, or “babble bag.”
13. Gehirnverweigerer
A “brain denier” is someone who doesn’t use their noggin often.
14. Teletubbyzurückwinker
This word, which means “someone who waves back at Teletubbies,” describes someone who isn’t too bright.
15. Schluckspecht
A boozer who hits the bottle too much can be called a “guzzling woodpecker.”
16. Stinkstiefel
A “smelly boot” is an especially grouchy person.
17. Tratschtante
A “gossip aunt” is someone who loves to spread rumors and talk about other people.
18. Rotzlöffel
A brat—literally, “snot spoon.”
19. Speichellecker
A “saliva licker,” or brown-noser.
20. Lackaffe
A “varnish monkey” is an overly flashy man who dresses garishly.
21. Schweinehund
In English, someone who behaves crassly can be called a “pig” or a “dog.” German combines both into schweinehund, meaning “pig dog.”
22. Trantüte
Here’s one for your morning commute: You can call the slowpoke in front of you a trantüte, or a “bag of whale blubber.”
23. Backpfeifengesicht
Backpfeife is a slap across the cheek, and gesicht is face. Put them together and you get “a face that invites a slap.”
24. Blockflötengesicht
Remember the recorder from your childhood music class? It has seven holes and blows hot air, just like a “recorder face,” or blockflötengesicht. (It refers to a person’s two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and mouth.) Basically, it means a stupid person, or someone given to meaningless talk.
25. Socken-in-Sandalen-Träger
There are a few sock-oriented taunts in German. A socken-in-sandalen-träger, or “socks-in-sandals wearer,” is kind of a wimp. So is a sockenschläfer (someone who sleeps in socks) and a sockenfalter (a man who folds his socks).
26. Weichei
Likewise, “soft eggs” are weak or wimpy.
27. Warmduscher
A warmduscher is a wuss who takes warm showers.
28. Jeansbügler
Someone who irons their jeans.
29. Tee-trinker
Someone who drinks tea—most likely when everyone else is drinking beer.
30. Schattenparker
Someone who parks in the shade.
*.*
The big Mega Millions winner lives in New Jersey.
Check the family tree.
*.*
Alexa, pay my taxes!
Quote of the Times;
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:32-34
Link of the Times;
Newsome and Bergquam Expose the Terror of Lawless Illegals:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/exclusive-newsome-bergquam-expose-terror-lawless-illegals-chicago/
Issue of the Times;
Who Are God’s Chosen People? by Pastor Andrew Isker
“We must give eleventy gazillion dollars to Israel because ‘they are God’s Chosen People’ and ‘those who bless you I will bless’” is a refrain Christians have been told their entire lives. There is no single theological issue that is the cause of greater confusion among Christians than what the status of Israel is in the New Covenant.
Christians are in the New Covenant. Most Christians understand this. But the confusion begins when we consider the Old Covenant. What was the point of the Old Covenant?
When God made a Covenant with Abraham and then developed it further with his descendants under Moses, what was the purpose of it?
How is the New Covenant made in Jesus’s blood so radically different?
These are questions that were sorted out throughout the New Testament. And despite much of the New Testament dealing with this issue, and millennia of Christian tradition extrapolating from it, confusion reigns today.
There is a whole panoply of false notions many Christians have unfortunately been taught to believe. For many Christians today, the Old Covenant was “the way you got saved before Jesus.” Despite a host of examples of non-Jews getting saved in the Old Testament (Jethro, Naaman, the whole city of Nineveh in Jonah, Nebuchadnezzar, etc.) many who think of it that way believe that only Jews in the Old Testament were saved. They think the special regulations that Israel was under in the Old Covenant—laws of clean and unclean, food regulations, sacrifices, etc.—were what you had to keep in order to go to heaven.
Because we don’t read and study the Old Testament, we fall prey to totally false notions like these. Because we don’t know the Old Testament, we have a hard time understanding the New Testament and what is new about the New Covenant. Because ignorance of the scriptures abounds, even from those called to teach it, we are in a very similar situation to the church at the time of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.
It was at this point in the history of the apostolic period that the false teaching of Judaizing began to take off. Satan had done his best to attack the church through external persecution, through the killing of Christians, but these efforts failed—the church continued to grow. So instead he took a much more insidious tactic. He began to attack the church from the inside. False apostles went to the churches and taught that in order to truly be saved, one must come under the rule of the Old Covenant—you must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. In the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Peter successfully made the case to the rest of the apostles that, no, the Gentiles—the non-Jewish believers—were just as much a part of the faith as Jews were. Peter had witnessed the Holy Spirit come upon the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household in the exact same manner He came upon the apostles at Pentecost. Paul had just preached to the Gentiles in Asia Minor and masses of them came to the faith. James and the rest of the apostles had concluded that the prohibitions on occult practices such as eating food sacrificed to demons, eating blood and animals strangled so as to retain their blood, and sexually immoral practices that are found in Leviticus 17-18 had always been binding on Jew and Gentile alike, and remain in force. The Gentiles in the Old Covenant era were under a covenant with God, too—the Noahic Covenant. And so this determination by the apostles was that this part of Leviticus was a universal feature of God’s moral law, binding to all mankind in the Covenant He made with Noah. The rest, laws regarding food, clean and unclean, what clothing you could wear, and requirements to keep the liturgical calendar and feasts, were not binding upon Christians. The reign of the Old Covenant had come to an end with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For us today, we are in a similar position as the church in Acts. In many cases, we are in a much worse place. We, generally speaking, don’t have any idea what the Old Covenant was about or what the Old Covenant was for. The best way to explain it is to look at the Nazirite Vow (Number 6:1-21). Samson, Samuel, and Paul later in this book, take Nazirite vows. A Nazirite was a special holy warrior who took on special restrictions during the time of his vow. He wouldn’t drink wine or eat grapes, could not touch anything dead, and could not cut his hair. But when his warfare was over, he cut his hair, made an offering, and resumed normal life. This is the Old Covenant that Israel was under in a microcosm. God had set apart Abraham with circumcision, and later the children of Israel with the laws of Moses with special regulations on clean and unclean, what they could and could not eat, even the clothes they could wear. The reason He did this is not because keeping these laws saved them, but because they were the people He chose to be His priests who led the nations of the world to Him. That is why they were under all these special regulations. And Jesus, the true Israel, came and kept this law perfectly, and kept the point of this law perfectly: going to the cross to die so the world could be saved. He did what Israel could not and would not do. And once His warfare was complete, the Nazirite cut his hair, so to speak. The Old Covenant had been fulfilled by Jesus Himself.
This is the point that the Book of Hebrews makes: you don’t need a priestly people because a new High Priest, not in the order of Aaron but of Melchizedek, the Gentile, was serving as High Priest and this High Priest would never die. The world is now in something like a redeemed Noahic covenant. All of mankind has access to God directly through Jesus.
So this is why it is so abominable to assert that Gentiles need to become Jews in order to be saved. The Jews thought they were the only saved people in the world, which was always false, but this error crept into the church subverting it. You must not go back to the Old Covenant which at that time was quickly passing away.
Understanding this is crucial in our day for several reasons. First, we don’t really get what the law is. God has revealed His eternal standards for righteousness in His Law. Modern antinomians—people who say there really is no law at all—will say that in the New Covenant, we are under grace not the law and so everything that God says is righteous and just in the Old Testament just gets thrown out. Similarly, unbelieving mockers like to attack Christians who don’t understand their Bibles as well as they should saying “Why are you saying homosexuality is a sin? Don’t you know that right next to all the passages about homosexuality being a sin is stuff about not eating pork and shellfish and not wearing clothing with two kinds of fabric? You eat bacon so you can’t say anything bad about Drag Queen Story Hour.” But James and the Jerusalem Council answered this objection. They took out their highlighter to Leviticus and said “These are the special regulations that God put upon the priestly people” and with another color, they highlighted chapters 17 and 18 and said, “these are the laws for all of mankind for all time.” They answered these stupid objections 2000 years ago for us.
The second reason we need to understand this is because many Christians are very confused about the status of Jews today. You have many popular teachers on TV who will tell you “Yes, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me,’ but the Jews are God’s chosen people so they can somehow be saved apart from Jesus.” That is entirely untrue. And in fact, it is a species of what the Judaizers taught, just in the other direction. Being Jewish does not save you. Having the Torah does not save you. Only Jesus saves you. But many Christians today do not understand this, and so we are easily manipulated by all sorts of false teachings. We misunderstand the promise to Abraham and His Seed, that “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) Paul makes very clear in Galatians that the Seed of Abraham is Christ, not those who reject Him (Galatians 3:16). Instead of being manipulated into wanting billions of dollars to flow to a foreign country, Christians should be concerned with Christ and His people being blessed.
Hebrews, written just before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple tells us very clearly what the status of the Old Covenant is: In that, He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13). The very locus of the Old Covenant, its absolute center and beating heart was the temple in Jerusalem. And when that temple fell, the Old Covenant was finished forever. There is no more Old Covenant left. All the promises God made to His people are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
That is the great purpose of the New Covenant that all the nations belong to Jesus and they must fear God and glorify Him. Jesus has accomplished what Israel could not, He completed her warfare and now sits on the throne of David forever. We must have the same perspective as the apostles: that the world is Christ’s and we must announce the victory of Christ’s kingdom everywhere.
We must search out the scriptures deeply. We must recover the knowledge of the scriptures that we have lost. To not see the Old Testament as some kind of historical appendix to the New Testament that you can read only if you are interested, but rather to see it as one complete book that is unified. The Old Testament shows us God’s eternal purposes for the world not just one nation. It shows us the priestly people awaiting the King and High Priest who would finally do what they could not. It shows us a God who always wanted all the nations, who from the very call of Abraham had declared that all the families of the world will be blessed through you and your Seed. That Seed of Abraham has come and that Seed reigns over the entire world right now. That the world belongs to Him and you play a role in the conquest of His Kingdom.
News of the Times;
Rachael Rollins Disbarred After Justice Refuses to Prosecute One of its Own:
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/03/15/rachael-rollins-disbarred-after-justice-refuses-to-prosecute-one-of-its-own/
Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass:
https://thealtworld.com/pepe_escobar/donetsk-avdeyevka-mariupol-on-the-road-in-electoral-donbass
Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth:
https://www.sciencealert.com/did-homo-sapiens-kill-off-all-the-other-humans
Thugs Beat and Stomp Helpless Illinois High School Student:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/thugs-beat-stomp-helpless-illinois-high-school-student/
Colorado Bureau of Investigation finds DNA scientist manipulated data:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/09/us/colorado-bureau-of-investigation-data-scientist-manipulation-case
TikTok is a Time Bomb:
https://www.gurwinder.blog/p/tiktok-may-be-a-chinese-bio-weapon
Wisconsin Democrat Convicted of Voter Fraud:
https://slaynews.com/news/wisconsin-democrat-convicted-voter-fraud-linked-2020-election-mail-in-ballot-scam/
Woke magazine asks “where are all the black people” in TV drama on Japanese history:
https://notthebee.com/article/not-satire-woke-magazine-asks-where-are-all-the-black-people-in-tv-drama-on-japanese-history-
American and Frontier planes crash into each other on Miami runway:
https://notthebee.com/article/american-and-frontier-planes-crash-into-each-other-on-miami-runway
UK-made tank mired during Ukrainian demo for media:
https://www.rt.com/news/594065-challenger-tanks-ukraine-bog/
The Overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide:
https://adst.org/2016/11/overthrow-haitis-aristide/
Necklacing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing
Women Flee Daughters Of The American Revolution After It Admits Men:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/11/women-flee-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-after-it-admits-men/
Migrant Shelters Become Infectious Disease Breeding Grounds:
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/major-measles-outbreak-reported-us-migrant-shelters-become-infectious-disease-breeding
The National Socialist Book Burnings 1933:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8AYHaz6ymM&ab_channel=ZoomerHistorian
The machine confessed to everything.
*.*
The movie "Late Night With The Devil" made $666,666 last Sunday.
I honestly don't know what possessed me to say that.
*.*
If you’ve had your fill of German terms of endearment and want to learn how to insult someone instead, look no further. Some of these insults are amusingly innocent-sounding, while others are pretty devastating so let’s hope you don’t wind up on the receiving end of one of those.
Here are 30 of the best German insults:
1. Arschgeige
Someone who doesn’t perform a particular task very well can be called a “butt violin,” or arschgeige.
2. Bananenbieger
Someone who’s engaged in a pointless task, who can’t concentrate, or has no direction in life can be called a bananenbieger, or “banana bender.”
3. Erbsenzähler
A “pea counter” is a nitpicker who obsesses over the little details. Similarly, you can call an overly pedantic person who always plays by the rules an ameisentätowierer, or “ant tattooist.”
4. Lustmolch
This word literally translates to “pleasure newt,” which is what you’d call someone who can’t get enough horizontal refreshment (a delightful 19-century slang term for sex).
5. Arsch mit ohren
A “butt with ears”—or, put simply, a complete ignoramus.
6. Evolutionsbremse
An “evolutionary brake” is an unintelligent person whose very existence on Earth hinders the advancement of the human species, so to speak.
7. Einzeller
In a similar vein, this word means a “single-cell organism.”
8. Hosenscheißer
These “trouser-poopers” are cowards.
9. Dünnbrettbohrer
A “driller of thin planks” is someone who takes the easy way out and does the bare minimum.
10. Spargeltarzan
This imaginative insult translates to “asparagus Tarzan,” and describes someone who is thin and gangly.
11. Kotzbrocken
A “lump of puke.”
12. Heißluftgebläse
A “hot air gun” is someone who talks too much, but about nothing. You can also call someone a labertasche, or “babble bag.”
13. Gehirnverweigerer
A “brain denier” is someone who doesn’t use their noggin often.
14. Teletubbyzurückwinker
This word, which means “someone who waves back at Teletubbies,” describes someone who isn’t too bright.
15. Schluckspecht
A boozer who hits the bottle too much can be called a “guzzling woodpecker.”
16. Stinkstiefel
A “smelly boot” is an especially grouchy person.
17. Tratschtante
A “gossip aunt” is someone who loves to spread rumors and talk about other people.
18. Rotzlöffel
A brat—literally, “snot spoon.”
19. Speichellecker
A “saliva licker,” or brown-noser.
20. Lackaffe
A “varnish monkey” is an overly flashy man who dresses garishly.
21. Schweinehund
In English, someone who behaves crassly can be called a “pig” or a “dog.” German combines both into schweinehund, meaning “pig dog.”
22. Trantüte
Here’s one for your morning commute: You can call the slowpoke in front of you a trantüte, or a “bag of whale blubber.”
23. Backpfeifengesicht
Backpfeife is a slap across the cheek, and gesicht is face. Put them together and you get “a face that invites a slap.”
24. Blockflötengesicht
Remember the recorder from your childhood music class? It has seven holes and blows hot air, just like a “recorder face,” or blockflötengesicht. (It refers to a person’s two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and mouth.) Basically, it means a stupid person, or someone given to meaningless talk.
25. Socken-in-Sandalen-Träger
There are a few sock-oriented taunts in German. A socken-in-sandalen-träger, or “socks-in-sandals wearer,” is kind of a wimp. So is a sockenschläfer (someone who sleeps in socks) and a sockenfalter (a man who folds his socks).
26. Weichei
Likewise, “soft eggs” are weak or wimpy.
27. Warmduscher
A warmduscher is a wuss who takes warm showers.
28. Jeansbügler
Someone who irons their jeans.
29. Tee-trinker
Someone who drinks tea—most likely when everyone else is drinking beer.
30. Schattenparker
Someone who parks in the shade.
*.*
The big Mega Millions winner lives in New Jersey.
Check the family tree.
*.*
Alexa, pay my taxes!
Quote of the Times;
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:32-34
Link of the Times;
Newsome and Bergquam Expose the Terror of Lawless Illegals:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/exclusive-newsome-bergquam-expose-terror-lawless-illegals-chicago/
Issue of the Times;
Who Are God’s Chosen People? by Pastor Andrew Isker
“We must give eleventy gazillion dollars to Israel because ‘they are God’s Chosen People’ and ‘those who bless you I will bless’” is a refrain Christians have been told their entire lives. There is no single theological issue that is the cause of greater confusion among Christians than what the status of Israel is in the New Covenant.
Christians are in the New Covenant. Most Christians understand this. But the confusion begins when we consider the Old Covenant. What was the point of the Old Covenant?
When God made a Covenant with Abraham and then developed it further with his descendants under Moses, what was the purpose of it?
How is the New Covenant made in Jesus’s blood so radically different?
These are questions that were sorted out throughout the New Testament. And despite much of the New Testament dealing with this issue, and millennia of Christian tradition extrapolating from it, confusion reigns today.
There is a whole panoply of false notions many Christians have unfortunately been taught to believe. For many Christians today, the Old Covenant was “the way you got saved before Jesus.” Despite a host of examples of non-Jews getting saved in the Old Testament (Jethro, Naaman, the whole city of Nineveh in Jonah, Nebuchadnezzar, etc.) many who think of it that way believe that only Jews in the Old Testament were saved. They think the special regulations that Israel was under in the Old Covenant—laws of clean and unclean, food regulations, sacrifices, etc.—were what you had to keep in order to go to heaven.
Because we don’t read and study the Old Testament, we fall prey to totally false notions like these. Because we don’t know the Old Testament, we have a hard time understanding the New Testament and what is new about the New Covenant. Because ignorance of the scriptures abounds, even from those called to teach it, we are in a very similar situation to the church at the time of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.
It was at this point in the history of the apostolic period that the false teaching of Judaizing began to take off. Satan had done his best to attack the church through external persecution, through the killing of Christians, but these efforts failed—the church continued to grow. So instead he took a much more insidious tactic. He began to attack the church from the inside. False apostles went to the churches and taught that in order to truly be saved, one must come under the rule of the Old Covenant—you must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. In the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Peter successfully made the case to the rest of the apostles that, no, the Gentiles—the non-Jewish believers—were just as much a part of the faith as Jews were. Peter had witnessed the Holy Spirit come upon the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household in the exact same manner He came upon the apostles at Pentecost. Paul had just preached to the Gentiles in Asia Minor and masses of them came to the faith. James and the rest of the apostles had concluded that the prohibitions on occult practices such as eating food sacrificed to demons, eating blood and animals strangled so as to retain their blood, and sexually immoral practices that are found in Leviticus 17-18 had always been binding on Jew and Gentile alike, and remain in force. The Gentiles in the Old Covenant era were under a covenant with God, too—the Noahic Covenant. And so this determination by the apostles was that this part of Leviticus was a universal feature of God’s moral law, binding to all mankind in the Covenant He made with Noah. The rest, laws regarding food, clean and unclean, what clothing you could wear, and requirements to keep the liturgical calendar and feasts, were not binding upon Christians. The reign of the Old Covenant had come to an end with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For us today, we are in a similar position as the church in Acts. In many cases, we are in a much worse place. We, generally speaking, don’t have any idea what the Old Covenant was about or what the Old Covenant was for. The best way to explain it is to look at the Nazirite Vow (Number 6:1-21). Samson, Samuel, and Paul later in this book, take Nazirite vows. A Nazirite was a special holy warrior who took on special restrictions during the time of his vow. He wouldn’t drink wine or eat grapes, could not touch anything dead, and could not cut his hair. But when his warfare was over, he cut his hair, made an offering, and resumed normal life. This is the Old Covenant that Israel was under in a microcosm. God had set apart Abraham with circumcision, and later the children of Israel with the laws of Moses with special regulations on clean and unclean, what they could and could not eat, even the clothes they could wear. The reason He did this is not because keeping these laws saved them, but because they were the people He chose to be His priests who led the nations of the world to Him. That is why they were under all these special regulations. And Jesus, the true Israel, came and kept this law perfectly, and kept the point of this law perfectly: going to the cross to die so the world could be saved. He did what Israel could not and would not do. And once His warfare was complete, the Nazirite cut his hair, so to speak. The Old Covenant had been fulfilled by Jesus Himself.
This is the point that the Book of Hebrews makes: you don’t need a priestly people because a new High Priest, not in the order of Aaron but of Melchizedek, the Gentile, was serving as High Priest and this High Priest would never die. The world is now in something like a redeemed Noahic covenant. All of mankind has access to God directly through Jesus.
So this is why it is so abominable to assert that Gentiles need to become Jews in order to be saved. The Jews thought they were the only saved people in the world, which was always false, but this error crept into the church subverting it. You must not go back to the Old Covenant which at that time was quickly passing away.
Understanding this is crucial in our day for several reasons. First, we don’t really get what the law is. God has revealed His eternal standards for righteousness in His Law. Modern antinomians—people who say there really is no law at all—will say that in the New Covenant, we are under grace not the law and so everything that God says is righteous and just in the Old Testament just gets thrown out. Similarly, unbelieving mockers like to attack Christians who don’t understand their Bibles as well as they should saying “Why are you saying homosexuality is a sin? Don’t you know that right next to all the passages about homosexuality being a sin is stuff about not eating pork and shellfish and not wearing clothing with two kinds of fabric? You eat bacon so you can’t say anything bad about Drag Queen Story Hour.” But James and the Jerusalem Council answered this objection. They took out their highlighter to Leviticus and said “These are the special regulations that God put upon the priestly people” and with another color, they highlighted chapters 17 and 18 and said, “these are the laws for all of mankind for all time.” They answered these stupid objections 2000 years ago for us.
The second reason we need to understand this is because many Christians are very confused about the status of Jews today. You have many popular teachers on TV who will tell you “Yes, Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me,’ but the Jews are God’s chosen people so they can somehow be saved apart from Jesus.” That is entirely untrue. And in fact, it is a species of what the Judaizers taught, just in the other direction. Being Jewish does not save you. Having the Torah does not save you. Only Jesus saves you. But many Christians today do not understand this, and so we are easily manipulated by all sorts of false teachings. We misunderstand the promise to Abraham and His Seed, that “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) Paul makes very clear in Galatians that the Seed of Abraham is Christ, not those who reject Him (Galatians 3:16). Instead of being manipulated into wanting billions of dollars to flow to a foreign country, Christians should be concerned with Christ and His people being blessed.
Hebrews, written just before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple tells us very clearly what the status of the Old Covenant is: In that, He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13). The very locus of the Old Covenant, its absolute center and beating heart was the temple in Jerusalem. And when that temple fell, the Old Covenant was finished forever. There is no more Old Covenant left. All the promises God made to His people are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
That is the great purpose of the New Covenant that all the nations belong to Jesus and they must fear God and glorify Him. Jesus has accomplished what Israel could not, He completed her warfare and now sits on the throne of David forever. We must have the same perspective as the apostles: that the world is Christ’s and we must announce the victory of Christ’s kingdom everywhere.
We must search out the scriptures deeply. We must recover the knowledge of the scriptures that we have lost. To not see the Old Testament as some kind of historical appendix to the New Testament that you can read only if you are interested, but rather to see it as one complete book that is unified. The Old Testament shows us God’s eternal purposes for the world not just one nation. It shows us the priestly people awaiting the King and High Priest who would finally do what they could not. It shows us a God who always wanted all the nations, who from the very call of Abraham had declared that all the families of the world will be blessed through you and your Seed. That Seed of Abraham has come and that Seed reigns over the entire world right now. That the world belongs to Him and you play a role in the conquest of His Kingdom.
News of the Times;
Rachael Rollins Disbarred After Justice Refuses to Prosecute One of its Own:
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/03/15/rachael-rollins-disbarred-after-justice-refuses-to-prosecute-one-of-its-own/
Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass:
https://thealtworld.com/pepe_escobar/donetsk-avdeyevka-mariupol-on-the-road-in-electoral-donbass
Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth:
https://www.sciencealert.com/did-homo-sapiens-kill-off-all-the-other-humans
Thugs Beat and Stomp Helpless Illinois High School Student:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/thugs-beat-stomp-helpless-illinois-high-school-student/
Colorado Bureau of Investigation finds DNA scientist manipulated data:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/09/us/colorado-bureau-of-investigation-data-scientist-manipulation-case
TikTok is a Time Bomb:
https://www.gurwinder.blog/p/tiktok-may-be-a-chinese-bio-weapon
Wisconsin Democrat Convicted of Voter Fraud:
https://slaynews.com/news/wisconsin-democrat-convicted-voter-fraud-linked-2020-election-mail-in-ballot-scam/
Woke magazine asks “where are all the black people” in TV drama on Japanese history:
https://notthebee.com/article/not-satire-woke-magazine-asks-where-are-all-the-black-people-in-tv-drama-on-japanese-history-
American and Frontier planes crash into each other on Miami runway:
https://notthebee.com/article/american-and-frontier-planes-crash-into-each-other-on-miami-runway
UK-made tank mired during Ukrainian demo for media:
https://www.rt.com/news/594065-challenger-tanks-ukraine-bog/
The Overthrow of Haiti’s Aristide:
https://adst.org/2016/11/overthrow-haitis-aristide/
Necklacing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing
Women Flee Daughters Of The American Revolution After It Admits Men:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/11/women-flee-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-after-it-admits-men/
Migrant Shelters Become Infectious Disease Breeding Grounds:
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/major-measles-outbreak-reported-us-migrant-shelters-become-infectious-disease-breeding
The National Socialist Book Burnings 1933:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8AYHaz6ymM&ab_channel=ZoomerHistorian
Goes?
Why is "o" the noisiest vowel?
All the others are in audible.
*.*
After that wheel fell off of a United Airlines flight the other day on takeoff, the captain of the flight couldn't resist saying,
"You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel."
*.*
A somber mood fell over one of the nation's foremost defense contractors this morning, as Raytheon lowered its flags to half-staff after Nikki Haley announced she was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
The aerospace technology corporation, which had been holding out hope that the world would enter a new era of highly profitable war, destruction, and death with the onset of World War III, was devastated by this morning's news that Haley had suspended her campaign.
"This is a major blow," said a Raytheon spokesperson. "We are deeply saddened by the news of Nikki Haley dropping out of the race. It is a dark day for us and for anyone who was hoping for a much darker future for the human race, and indeed the entire world. We have lowered our flags to half-staff in solemn memory of the dream we shared with Nikki Haley of endless wars and vast rivers of defense contract money."
In a brief statement, Haley also acknowledged disappointment that she would be unable to lead the country into a global conflict that would wreak havoc on human civilization. "It is indeed a sad day," she said. "While Donald Trump continues his quest to return the world to a state of peace and stability, we hoped to plunge the globe further into very lucrative chaos. I thank my dear friends at Raytheon for their support, the millions and millions of dollars they have given me over the years, and their ongoing desire to see the world burn."
At publishing time, Raytheon's parent company had already offered Haley a seat on its board of directors.
*.*
Oh, great!
They banned TikTok.
Now, what am I gonna do with all these Tide pods?
*.*
Research says that it takes around a week for each of our bodies to adjust to Daylight Saving Time.
So bite me.
Quote of the Times;
You know that the word “elite” has lost much of its credibility. Those who have done nothing for society and consider themselves a caste endowed with special rights and privileges – especially those who took advantage of all kinds of economic processes in the 1990s to line their pockets – are definitely not the elite. To reiterate, those who serve Russia, hard workers and military, reliable, trustworthy people who have proven their loyalty to Russia by deeds, in a word, dignified people are the genuine elite. - Vladimir Putin, 29 February 2024
Link of the Times;
Sex Change Regret:
https://sexchangeregret.com/
Issue of the Times;
DEI killed the CHIPS Act by Matt Cole and Chris Nicholson
DEI — the identity-obsessed dogma that goes by “diversity, equity, and inclusion” — has now trained Google’s new AI to refuse to draw white people. What’s even more alarming is that it’s also infected the supply chain that makes the chips powering everything from AI to missiles, endangering national security.
The Biden administration recently promised it will finally loosen the purse strings on $39 billion of CHIPS Act grants to encourage semiconductor fabrication in the U.S. But less than a week later, Intel announced that it’s putting the brakes on its Columbus factory. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has pushed back production at its second Arizona foundry. The remaining major chipmaker, Samsung, just delayed its first Texas fab.
This is not the way companies typically respond to multi-billion-dollar subsidies. So what explains chipmakers’ apparent ingratitude? In large part, frustration with DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act.
Commentators have noted that CHIPS and Science Act money has been sluggish. What they haven’t noticed is that it’s because the CHIPS Act is so loaded with DEI pork that it can’t move.
The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups, including one creating a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation, and several prioritizing scientific cooperation with what it calls “minority-serving institutions.” A section called “Opportunity and Inclusion” instructs the Department of Commerce to work with minority-owned businesses and make sure chipmakers “increase the participation of economically disadvantaged individuals in the semiconductor workforce.”
The department interprets that as license to diversify. Its factsheet asserts that diversity is “critical to strengthening the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem,” adding, “Critically, this must include significant investments to create opportunities for Americans from historically underserved communities.”
The department does not call speed critical, even though the impetus for the CHIPS Act is that 90 percent of the world’s advanced microchips are made in Taiwan, which China is preparing to annex by 2027, maybe even 2025.
Handouts abound. There’s plenty for the left—requirements that chipmakers submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train lots of women and people of color, as well as “justice-involved individuals,” more commonly known as ex-cons. There’s plenty for the right—veterans and members of rural communities find their way into the typical DEI definition of minorities. There’s even plenty for the planet: Arizona Democrats just bragged they’ve won $15 million in CHIPS funding for an ASU project fighting climate change.
That project is going better for Arizona than the actual chips part of the CHIPS Act. Because equity is so critical, the makers of humanity’s most complex technology must rely on local labor and apprentices from all those underrepresented groups, as TSMC discovered to its dismay.
Tired of delays at its first fab, the company flew in 500 employees from Taiwan. This angered local workers, since the implication was that they weren’t skilled enough. With CHIPS grants at risk, TSMC caved in December, agreeing to rely on those workers and invest more in training them. A month later, it postponed its second Arizona fab.
Now TSMC has revealed plans to build a second fab in Japan. Its first, which broke ground in 2021, is about to begin production. TSMC has learned that when the Japanese promise money, they actually give it, and they allow it to use competent workers. TSMC is also sampling Germany’s chip subsidies, as is Intel.
Intel is also building fabs in Poland and Israel, which means it would rather risk Russian aggression and Hamas rockets over dealing with America’s DEI regime. Samsung is pivoting toward making its South Korean homeland the semiconductor superpower after Taiwan falls.
In short, the world’s best chipmakers are tired of being pawns in the CHIPS Act’s political games. They’ve quietly given up on America. Intel must know the coming grants are election-year stunts — mere statements of intent that will not be followed up. Even after due diligence and final agreements, the funds will only be released in dribs and drabs as recipients prove they’re jumping through the appropriate hoops.
For instance, chipmakers have to make sure they hire plenty of female construction workers, even though less than 10 percent of U.S. construction workers are women. They also have to ensure childcare for the female construction workers and engineers who don’t exist yet. They have to remove degree requirements and set “diverse hiring slate policies,” which sounds like code for quotas. They must create plans to do all this with “close and ongoing coordination with on-the-ground stakeholders.”
No wonder Intel politely postponed its Columbus fab and started planning one in Ireland. Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was launching a CHIPS-funded training program for historically black colleges.
Now the secretary is calling for a second CHIPS Act. Before that, let’s make the one we have usable. There’s an easy fix. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is already trying to pass a bill exempting CHIPS funding from the multiyear environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The same need for speed calls for adding in a veto of the Commerce Department’s diversity tag-alongs.
All Congress has to do is insist it meant what it said in the CHIPS Act and no more: giving poor people opportunities isn’t a free pass to enact all of DEI’s pet causes, and especially not to make national security wait on them. What Congress didn’t give, Congress should be willing to take away.
This is the stuff declining empires are made of. As America pursues national security by building a diverse workforce, China does it by building warships.
The CHIPS Act’s current identity as a jobs program for favored minorities means companies are forced to recruit heavily from every population except white and Asian men already trained in the field. It’s like fishing in all the places you aren’t getting bites.
Instead of solving the problem, the people in charge are trying to cover the problem up just long enough to win reelection. Don’t be fooled by the Biden administration’s upcoming weekend-at-Bernie’s act — the CHIPS Act is dead.
News of the Times;
Bombshell Report Reveals Biden Has Secretly Flown 320,000 Illegals INTO The United States:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treason-bombshell-report-reveals-biden-has-secretly-flown-320000-illegals-united-states
Biden Parole Flights Create Security ‘Vulnerabilities’ at U.S. Airports:
https://cis.org/Bensman/Government-Admission-Biden-Parole-Flights-Create-Security-Vulnerabilities-US-Airports
Need More Proof Biden Was Drugged for the State of the Union?
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/03/09/need-more-proof-biden-was-drugged-for-the-state-of-the-union-n4927158
Air Force Employee Indicted For Giving Classified Intel on Ukraine:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/air-force-employee-indicted-giving-classified-intel-ukraine/
The Wheels Are Coming Off DEI:
https://pjmedia.com/athena-thorne/2024/03/08/the-wheels-are-coming-off-dei-literally-n4927133
Acid Attacks:
https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/krav-maga-weapons/acid-attacks.html
California Transformed Prisons To The "Norway Model":
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-transformed-prisons-norway-model-insiders-reveal-deadly-cost
Joe Biden Has the Dead Black Eyes Again:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/joe-biden-has-dead-black-eyes-again-they/
Preterm birth more likely with exposure to phthalates:
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/preterm-birth-more-likely-exposure-phthalates
Net Zero is a National Security Threat:
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/01/net-zero-is-a-national-security-threat-and-must-be-abandoned-former-security-minister-warns/
US Deploys Anti-Drone Laser Systems in the Middle East:
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/us-deploys-anti-drone-laser-systems-in-the-middle-east-to-field-test-prototypes/
Sexually transmitted infections on rise in EU:
https://www.rt.com/news/593965-sexually-transmitted-infections-rise-eu/
Whitehouse Was Committing The Ethics Violations He Projected Onto Supreme Court:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/08/complaint-whitehouse-was-committing-the-ethics-violations-he-projected-onto-supreme-court-justices/
Victoria’s Secret Falls Most Ever in Faltering Turnaround:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/victoria-secret-falls-nearly-30-111403685.html
Former Honduran President Convicted of Aiding Traffickers:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/former-honduran-president-convicted-aiding-traffickers-moving-drugs/
All the others are in audible.
*.*
After that wheel fell off of a United Airlines flight the other day on takeoff, the captain of the flight couldn't resist saying,
"You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel."
*.*
A somber mood fell over one of the nation's foremost defense contractors this morning, as Raytheon lowered its flags to half-staff after Nikki Haley announced she was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
The aerospace technology corporation, which had been holding out hope that the world would enter a new era of highly profitable war, destruction, and death with the onset of World War III, was devastated by this morning's news that Haley had suspended her campaign.
"This is a major blow," said a Raytheon spokesperson. "We are deeply saddened by the news of Nikki Haley dropping out of the race. It is a dark day for us and for anyone who was hoping for a much darker future for the human race, and indeed the entire world. We have lowered our flags to half-staff in solemn memory of the dream we shared with Nikki Haley of endless wars and vast rivers of defense contract money."
In a brief statement, Haley also acknowledged disappointment that she would be unable to lead the country into a global conflict that would wreak havoc on human civilization. "It is indeed a sad day," she said. "While Donald Trump continues his quest to return the world to a state of peace and stability, we hoped to plunge the globe further into very lucrative chaos. I thank my dear friends at Raytheon for their support, the millions and millions of dollars they have given me over the years, and their ongoing desire to see the world burn."
At publishing time, Raytheon's parent company had already offered Haley a seat on its board of directors.
*.*
Oh, great!
They banned TikTok.
Now, what am I gonna do with all these Tide pods?
*.*
Research says that it takes around a week for each of our bodies to adjust to Daylight Saving Time.
So bite me.
Quote of the Times;
You know that the word “elite” has lost much of its credibility. Those who have done nothing for society and consider themselves a caste endowed with special rights and privileges – especially those who took advantage of all kinds of economic processes in the 1990s to line their pockets – are definitely not the elite. To reiterate, those who serve Russia, hard workers and military, reliable, trustworthy people who have proven their loyalty to Russia by deeds, in a word, dignified people are the genuine elite. - Vladimir Putin, 29 February 2024
Link of the Times;
Sex Change Regret:
https://sexchangeregret.com/
Issue of the Times;
DEI killed the CHIPS Act by Matt Cole and Chris Nicholson
DEI — the identity-obsessed dogma that goes by “diversity, equity, and inclusion” — has now trained Google’s new AI to refuse to draw white people. What’s even more alarming is that it’s also infected the supply chain that makes the chips powering everything from AI to missiles, endangering national security.
The Biden administration recently promised it will finally loosen the purse strings on $39 billion of CHIPS Act grants to encourage semiconductor fabrication in the U.S. But less than a week later, Intel announced that it’s putting the brakes on its Columbus factory. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has pushed back production at its second Arizona foundry. The remaining major chipmaker, Samsung, just delayed its first Texas fab.
This is not the way companies typically respond to multi-billion-dollar subsidies. So what explains chipmakers’ apparent ingratitude? In large part, frustration with DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act.
Commentators have noted that CHIPS and Science Act money has been sluggish. What they haven’t noticed is that it’s because the CHIPS Act is so loaded with DEI pork that it can’t move.
The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups, including one creating a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation, and several prioritizing scientific cooperation with what it calls “minority-serving institutions.” A section called “Opportunity and Inclusion” instructs the Department of Commerce to work with minority-owned businesses and make sure chipmakers “increase the participation of economically disadvantaged individuals in the semiconductor workforce.”
The department interprets that as license to diversify. Its factsheet asserts that diversity is “critical to strengthening the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem,” adding, “Critically, this must include significant investments to create opportunities for Americans from historically underserved communities.”
The department does not call speed critical, even though the impetus for the CHIPS Act is that 90 percent of the world’s advanced microchips are made in Taiwan, which China is preparing to annex by 2027, maybe even 2025.
Handouts abound. There’s plenty for the left—requirements that chipmakers submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train lots of women and people of color, as well as “justice-involved individuals,” more commonly known as ex-cons. There’s plenty for the right—veterans and members of rural communities find their way into the typical DEI definition of minorities. There’s even plenty for the planet: Arizona Democrats just bragged they’ve won $15 million in CHIPS funding for an ASU project fighting climate change.
That project is going better for Arizona than the actual chips part of the CHIPS Act. Because equity is so critical, the makers of humanity’s most complex technology must rely on local labor and apprentices from all those underrepresented groups, as TSMC discovered to its dismay.
Tired of delays at its first fab, the company flew in 500 employees from Taiwan. This angered local workers, since the implication was that they weren’t skilled enough. With CHIPS grants at risk, TSMC caved in December, agreeing to rely on those workers and invest more in training them. A month later, it postponed its second Arizona fab.
Now TSMC has revealed plans to build a second fab in Japan. Its first, which broke ground in 2021, is about to begin production. TSMC has learned that when the Japanese promise money, they actually give it, and they allow it to use competent workers. TSMC is also sampling Germany’s chip subsidies, as is Intel.
Intel is also building fabs in Poland and Israel, which means it would rather risk Russian aggression and Hamas rockets over dealing with America’s DEI regime. Samsung is pivoting toward making its South Korean homeland the semiconductor superpower after Taiwan falls.
In short, the world’s best chipmakers are tired of being pawns in the CHIPS Act’s political games. They’ve quietly given up on America. Intel must know the coming grants are election-year stunts — mere statements of intent that will not be followed up. Even after due diligence and final agreements, the funds will only be released in dribs and drabs as recipients prove they’re jumping through the appropriate hoops.
For instance, chipmakers have to make sure they hire plenty of female construction workers, even though less than 10 percent of U.S. construction workers are women. They also have to ensure childcare for the female construction workers and engineers who don’t exist yet. They have to remove degree requirements and set “diverse hiring slate policies,” which sounds like code for quotas. They must create plans to do all this with “close and ongoing coordination with on-the-ground stakeholders.”
No wonder Intel politely postponed its Columbus fab and started planning one in Ireland. Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was launching a CHIPS-funded training program for historically black colleges.
Now the secretary is calling for a second CHIPS Act. Before that, let’s make the one we have usable. There’s an easy fix. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is already trying to pass a bill exempting CHIPS funding from the multiyear environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The same need for speed calls for adding in a veto of the Commerce Department’s diversity tag-alongs.
All Congress has to do is insist it meant what it said in the CHIPS Act and no more: giving poor people opportunities isn’t a free pass to enact all of DEI’s pet causes, and especially not to make national security wait on them. What Congress didn’t give, Congress should be willing to take away.
This is the stuff declining empires are made of. As America pursues national security by building a diverse workforce, China does it by building warships.
The CHIPS Act’s current identity as a jobs program for favored minorities means companies are forced to recruit heavily from every population except white and Asian men already trained in the field. It’s like fishing in all the places you aren’t getting bites.
Instead of solving the problem, the people in charge are trying to cover the problem up just long enough to win reelection. Don’t be fooled by the Biden administration’s upcoming weekend-at-Bernie’s act — the CHIPS Act is dead.
News of the Times;
Bombshell Report Reveals Biden Has Secretly Flown 320,000 Illegals INTO The United States:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treason-bombshell-report-reveals-biden-has-secretly-flown-320000-illegals-united-states
Biden Parole Flights Create Security ‘Vulnerabilities’ at U.S. Airports:
https://cis.org/Bensman/Government-Admission-Biden-Parole-Flights-Create-Security-Vulnerabilities-US-Airports
Need More Proof Biden Was Drugged for the State of the Union?
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/03/09/need-more-proof-biden-was-drugged-for-the-state-of-the-union-n4927158
Air Force Employee Indicted For Giving Classified Intel on Ukraine:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/air-force-employee-indicted-giving-classified-intel-ukraine/
The Wheels Are Coming Off DEI:
https://pjmedia.com/athena-thorne/2024/03/08/the-wheels-are-coming-off-dei-literally-n4927133
Acid Attacks:
https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/krav-maga-weapons/acid-attacks.html
California Transformed Prisons To The "Norway Model":
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-transformed-prisons-norway-model-insiders-reveal-deadly-cost
Joe Biden Has the Dead Black Eyes Again:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/joe-biden-has-dead-black-eyes-again-they/
Preterm birth more likely with exposure to phthalates:
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/preterm-birth-more-likely-exposure-phthalates
Net Zero is a National Security Threat:
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/01/net-zero-is-a-national-security-threat-and-must-be-abandoned-former-security-minister-warns/
US Deploys Anti-Drone Laser Systems in the Middle East:
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/us-deploys-anti-drone-laser-systems-in-the-middle-east-to-field-test-prototypes/
Sexually transmitted infections on rise in EU:
https://www.rt.com/news/593965-sexually-transmitted-infections-rise-eu/
Whitehouse Was Committing The Ethics Violations He Projected Onto Supreme Court:
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/08/complaint-whitehouse-was-committing-the-ethics-violations-he-projected-onto-supreme-court-justices/
Victoria’s Secret Falls Most Ever in Faltering Turnaround:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/victoria-secret-falls-nearly-30-111403685.html
Former Honduran President Convicted of Aiding Traffickers:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/former-honduran-president-convicted-aiding-traffickers-moving-drugs/
Official?
If it snows, please stay home.
When you learn to drive in the sun, then we will discuss driving in the snow.
*.*
Oneliners:
Adult life is constantly saying to your friends, "Let's do something soon" and suddenly, six months have gone by.
Never speak to a dad putting a piece of furniture together unless you want your feelings hurt.
Has anyone tried unplugging the United States and plugging it back in?
Even when a balloon is half inflated, it is completely full.
If James Bond is the most famous spy, wouldn't that also make him the worst spy?
Bean bags are just boneless sofas.
Teeth are the only problem where if you ignore them, they will go away.
You know you're a bad driver when Siri says, "In 400 feet, stop and let me out."
Puns about communism aren't funny unless everybody gets them.
I can tell if people are judgmental just by looking at them
*.*
Amid record-breaking illegal immigration at the southern border, President Biden arrived in Brownsville Texas to address his voters, who had crossed into the United States the previous night.
"Welcome, voters, make yourselves at home!" said Biden to a group of military-aged male Chinese nationals and a crowd of convicted felons from a maximum security Venezuelan prison. "My nurse Jill always says you people are unique breakfast tacos and I couldn't have said it better. We're excited for you to live here. You have plenty of great states to choose from, like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or any other crucial battleground states. I was... I... I..."
"... well, anyway."
The confused migrant crowd was then directed to a welcome station to receive their smartphones, visa gift cards, and mail-in ballots.
Following the Biden border visit, the White House confirmed that there is no crisis at the border. "Everything is fine and there are no illegal immigrants," said gay black Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre. "There is no crisis and Biden is doing a great job and he's very smart and sharp and mentally with it and you are a racist."
*.*
Top 5 Sign this is going to be a Rough Monday:
Vultures snuck into building, literally circling your desk.
The person in charge of Monday donuts brought in a vegetable tray.
At 2:30pm, you found a time portal. But it took you back to 8am.
You realize you really overslept and it's actually Tuesday.
Company memo: Boss has officially declared this "ROUGH MONDAY".
*.*
What's the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral?
One less drunk.
Quote of the Times;
“Either you actively and materially support what you like or you don’t matter at all. Just as no army has any use for warriors who won’t fight, no business has any use for supporters who burn up its resources rather than contribute them.” – Vox Day
Link of the Times;
Latest Stories:
https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/
Issue of the Times;
Now They Tell Us by Michael Walsh
"It’s Official: We Can Pretty Much Treat Covid Like the Flu Now." What do you mean "now," white man? From the Wall Street Journal:
A case of Covid no longer means isolating for five days, according to the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. It’s the latest sign of the virus’s normalization four years after it upended our lives. You should now follow the same precautions with Covid as you take with the flu, according to new guidelines from the CDC. That means staying home until you’ve gone a day with no fever and symptoms start to improve. Take other precautions for the next five days, including wearing a mask and limiting close contact with others. Those are the same steps the CDC recommends for other respiratory viruses.
At what point have we had enough from these people? As evident practically from the start, the malignant Covid hoax -- part of a series of scarifying hoaxes perpetrated by the Left and its pet media starting in early 2016 as part of the "resistance" against the election of Donald Trump -- was (as we say in Ireland) a load of bollocks. From its inception, I warned against it in the pages of the Epoch Times. Here's an example from late December of 2021, summing things up to that point:
Here we are, coming up on the second anniversary of “two weeks to slow the spread” of a flu-like virus most likely hatched in a Chinese communist laboratory in Wuhan, with a little help from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the American taxpayer, and the dreaded COVID-19 chest cold has conquered the planet, instilling fear and loathing in weak minds whenever and wherever it appears in any of its “Transformers”-like, constantly mutating configurations.
In the “Transformers” film series, ordinary household machines such as cars can suddenly reshape themselves into terrifying robots; the evil ones were known as Decepticons and had scary names like Megatron and Bonecrusher. In the world of socialized medicine, this viral beast has been dubbed by the government the Omicron variant (what a title for a Robert Ludlum thriller), which, of course, has arrived right on schedule to attack the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations around the world.
The irony is, had the novel coronavirus been treated the same way as its immediate predecessors, including SARS, the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968, no one would be talking about it, there would have been no lockdowns, no masks, no ruination of the economy, no destruction of the travel industry, no stealth takeover of private medicine and, most importantly, no unconstitutional loss of personal liberty.
But the very act of neurotically obsessing over it has triggered and weaponized the critter and, a la Heisenberg, transformed it from a bug that preyed on old people into the Thing That Devoured the Planet.
More: "Ever since the politically conveniently timed appearance of the CCP virus early in 2020, Fauci and his coevals at various government “health” agencies have whipsawed the American public with their erratic, contradictory, and wholly unscientific pronouncements, all in the interest of aggrandizing more power."
These Decepticons managed to take down the gullible Trump administration and institutionalize their priorities for controlling the population by nullifying the Bill of Rights, helping to install Joe Biden, and giving a big fat Christmas present to the pharmaceutical companies—which have profited handsomely from the pandemic.
A “disease” that is in many cases strikingly asymptomatic, whose lethality (such as it is and depending on who’s counting and how) is counted by “cases” (a meaningless statistic), and whose survival rate has always been near 99 percent for the vast majority of the world’s population, doesn’t seem like much of a threat in the cosmic scheme of things. Nor does a “vaccine” that not only doesn’t prevent you from getting the bug but permits “breakthrough” infections and also has significant side effects seem like much of a vaccine.
But from the beginning, the Democrat-Media Complex has gone all-in on apocalyptic hysteria as governments around the globe have vowed to “defeat” the virus, and some—like the newly formed police states of Australia and New Zealand—are even articulating an impossible “zero COVID” policy.
All of which is just fine with Fauci, the nation’s highest-paid ($434,312 per year) bureaucrat, and one of its longest-serving. Yes, the man who told heterosexuals that they, too, were going to be stricken by AIDS back in the early ’80s is still collecting a government check, despite his record of proven scare-mongering, and his troubling fascination with “gain of function” virology.
The Malevolent Midget is gone now, pulling down his handsome pension for his "service," but the evil that he did lives on after him. Should Trump actually overcome the forces arrayed against him and actually pull a Grover Cleveland and get re-elected to the office from which a "fortified" election forcibly ejected him in 2020, a just universe would allow him to deal out some well-deserved payback for the forces behind the Russia Hoax, the Climate-Change Hoax, and the Covid Hoax, not to mention the abrogation of American sovereignty at the southern (and northern) borders, the collapse of the American military into a sob-sisterhood of feminist resentment and gay and "transsexual" triumphalism, and all the other ills currently attendant upon these United States.
What lessons can we learn from this belated admission that the entire clusterkluge was a "mistake"? How to compensate for those who watched their loved ones die from behind a plate-glass window in Mengele Memorial Hospital? For those who -- like a dear friend and mentor of mine -- died from a second shot of the "vaccine" in the early days of the panic? For the families disrupted, restaurants closed, businesses destroyed, industries wrecked -- and all with the witting complicity of the mainstream media, which so enthusiastically hosanna-ed the official narrative, despite the evidence of their own senses?
"Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission." Isn't that how the saying goes? I wrote my answer in this space almost a year ago. Never forgive, never forget I advised;
Latterly, there's a movement afoot by those who brought you the continuing Covid disaster to feign remorse over what they did. Don't buy a word of it. These crocodiles -- a cabal of frightened women and pusillanimous yet power hungry men -- enjoyed every minute of your misery, even as they swan about on their mini non-apology tours and warn direly about the next iteration of the Black Death that is surely headed our (but not their) way. Meanwhile, they're allowed to quietly resign and cash in their enormous pensions, courtesy of you. Will they get away with it? Of course they will. As gangster Johnny Caspar says in the Coen brothers' peerless film, Miller's Crossing: "if you can't trust a fix, what can you trust?"
Hoaxes like these will never end until you do something about it. They will continue to pile on "catastrophe" after "catastrophe," demanding that we do something about it right now, including changing some of our most fundamental laws and principles in order to combat a non-existent "threat." The only thing these people understand is power. Not logic, argument, evidence, moral suasion. And the only way to respond to them is with greater power. Ask yourself this: what would the Romans do? To ask the question is to answer it.
News of the Times;
Alleged audio of German officers discussing Crimean Bridge attack:
https://www.rt.com/news/593555-audio-german-crimean-bridge-attack/
"Fight Your Fight Yourself": Trump Scolds Biden:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/supreme-court-rules-trump-remain-presidential-ballots
CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team:
https://public.substack.com/p/cia-had-foreign-allies-spy-on-trump
COVID Vaccine Shedding Is 'Real', FDA & Pfizer Documents Are Proof::
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/covid-vaccine-shedding-real-fda-and-pfizer-documents-are-proof-clinicians
"Rapes, Robberies, & Shootout" At Darién Gap As Biden's Border Crisis Spreads:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rapes-robberies-shootout-darien-gap-bidens-border-crisis-spreads-chaos
Despite Targeted Funding, California Prisons Didn’t Fix Disciplinary Process:
https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/02/12/waste_of_the_day_despite_targeted_funding_california_prisons_didnt_fix_disciplinary_process_1010628.html
BMW i3 owner confronted with $71,000 bill to replace EV battery:
https://www.wnd.com/2024/02/bmw-i3-owner-confronted-71000-bill-replace-ev-battery/
CNN Anchor Argues US Cities Are Disgusting Because They Are “Expressions Of Democracy”:
https://modernity.news/2024/02/19/cnn-anchor-argues-us-cities-are-disgusting-because-they-are-expressions-of-democracy/
For Socialists, It Doesn't Matter if Socialism "Works.":
https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-power
Albania does favor for NATO amid rising Russia fears:
https://www.rt.com/news/593758-albania-reopens-air-base-for-nato/
Hunter Biden Held Previously Undisclosed Meeting With Spy Chief Of China:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/agent-hunter-ex-partner-says-5-million-sought-quash-ukrainian-indictment-undisclosed
US workforce as universities fail students, business owners:
https://www.campusreform.org/article/prof-giordano-feelings-economy-engulf-us-workforce-universities-fail-students-business-owners-%7D/24896
America’s teenage mental health crisis:
https://nypost.com/2024/03/02/lifestyle/abigail-shrier-reveals-americas-teenage-mental-health-crisis/
Another Jack Smith major “head implosion” going down:
https://revolver.news/2024/03/another-jack-smith-major-head-implosion-going-down-in-3-2-1/
Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony:
https://globalnews.ca/news/5006450/jody-wilson-raybould-testimony-transcript/
When you learn to drive in the sun, then we will discuss driving in the snow.
*.*
Oneliners:
Adult life is constantly saying to your friends, "Let's do something soon" and suddenly, six months have gone by.
Never speak to a dad putting a piece of furniture together unless you want your feelings hurt.
Has anyone tried unplugging the United States and plugging it back in?
Even when a balloon is half inflated, it is completely full.
If James Bond is the most famous spy, wouldn't that also make him the worst spy?
Bean bags are just boneless sofas.
Teeth are the only problem where if you ignore them, they will go away.
You know you're a bad driver when Siri says, "In 400 feet, stop and let me out."
Puns about communism aren't funny unless everybody gets them.
I can tell if people are judgmental just by looking at them
*.*
Amid record-breaking illegal immigration at the southern border, President Biden arrived in Brownsville Texas to address his voters, who had crossed into the United States the previous night.
"Welcome, voters, make yourselves at home!" said Biden to a group of military-aged male Chinese nationals and a crowd of convicted felons from a maximum security Venezuelan prison. "My nurse Jill always says you people are unique breakfast tacos and I couldn't have said it better. We're excited for you to live here. You have plenty of great states to choose from, like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or any other crucial battleground states. I was... I... I..."
"... well, anyway."
The confused migrant crowd was then directed to a welcome station to receive their smartphones, visa gift cards, and mail-in ballots.
Following the Biden border visit, the White House confirmed that there is no crisis at the border. "Everything is fine and there are no illegal immigrants," said gay black Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre. "There is no crisis and Biden is doing a great job and he's very smart and sharp and mentally with it and you are a racist."
*.*
Top 5 Sign this is going to be a Rough Monday:
Vultures snuck into building, literally circling your desk.
The person in charge of Monday donuts brought in a vegetable tray.
At 2:30pm, you found a time portal. But it took you back to 8am.
You realize you really overslept and it's actually Tuesday.
Company memo: Boss has officially declared this "ROUGH MONDAY".
*.*
What's the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral?
One less drunk.
Quote of the Times;
“Either you actively and materially support what you like or you don’t matter at all. Just as no army has any use for warriors who won’t fight, no business has any use for supporters who burn up its resources rather than contribute them.” – Vox Day
Link of the Times;
Latest Stories:
https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/
Issue of the Times;
Now They Tell Us by Michael Walsh
"It’s Official: We Can Pretty Much Treat Covid Like the Flu Now." What do you mean "now," white man? From the Wall Street Journal:
A case of Covid no longer means isolating for five days, according to the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. It’s the latest sign of the virus’s normalization four years after it upended our lives. You should now follow the same precautions with Covid as you take with the flu, according to new guidelines from the CDC. That means staying home until you’ve gone a day with no fever and symptoms start to improve. Take other precautions for the next five days, including wearing a mask and limiting close contact with others. Those are the same steps the CDC recommends for other respiratory viruses.
At what point have we had enough from these people? As evident practically from the start, the malignant Covid hoax -- part of a series of scarifying hoaxes perpetrated by the Left and its pet media starting in early 2016 as part of the "resistance" against the election of Donald Trump -- was (as we say in Ireland) a load of bollocks. From its inception, I warned against it in the pages of the Epoch Times. Here's an example from late December of 2021, summing things up to that point:
Here we are, coming up on the second anniversary of “two weeks to slow the spread” of a flu-like virus most likely hatched in a Chinese communist laboratory in Wuhan, with a little help from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the American taxpayer, and the dreaded COVID-19 chest cold has conquered the planet, instilling fear and loathing in weak minds whenever and wherever it appears in any of its “Transformers”-like, constantly mutating configurations.
In the “Transformers” film series, ordinary household machines such as cars can suddenly reshape themselves into terrifying robots; the evil ones were known as Decepticons and had scary names like Megatron and Bonecrusher. In the world of socialized medicine, this viral beast has been dubbed by the government the Omicron variant (what a title for a Robert Ludlum thriller), which, of course, has arrived right on schedule to attack the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations around the world.
The irony is, had the novel coronavirus been treated the same way as its immediate predecessors, including SARS, the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968, no one would be talking about it, there would have been no lockdowns, no masks, no ruination of the economy, no destruction of the travel industry, no stealth takeover of private medicine and, most importantly, no unconstitutional loss of personal liberty.
But the very act of neurotically obsessing over it has triggered and weaponized the critter and, a la Heisenberg, transformed it from a bug that preyed on old people into the Thing That Devoured the Planet.
More: "Ever since the politically conveniently timed appearance of the CCP virus early in 2020, Fauci and his coevals at various government “health” agencies have whipsawed the American public with their erratic, contradictory, and wholly unscientific pronouncements, all in the interest of aggrandizing more power."
These Decepticons managed to take down the gullible Trump administration and institutionalize their priorities for controlling the population by nullifying the Bill of Rights, helping to install Joe Biden, and giving a big fat Christmas present to the pharmaceutical companies—which have profited handsomely from the pandemic.
A “disease” that is in many cases strikingly asymptomatic, whose lethality (such as it is and depending on who’s counting and how) is counted by “cases” (a meaningless statistic), and whose survival rate has always been near 99 percent for the vast majority of the world’s population, doesn’t seem like much of a threat in the cosmic scheme of things. Nor does a “vaccine” that not only doesn’t prevent you from getting the bug but permits “breakthrough” infections and also has significant side effects seem like much of a vaccine.
But from the beginning, the Democrat-Media Complex has gone all-in on apocalyptic hysteria as governments around the globe have vowed to “defeat” the virus, and some—like the newly formed police states of Australia and New Zealand—are even articulating an impossible “zero COVID” policy.
All of which is just fine with Fauci, the nation’s highest-paid ($434,312 per year) bureaucrat, and one of its longest-serving. Yes, the man who told heterosexuals that they, too, were going to be stricken by AIDS back in the early ’80s is still collecting a government check, despite his record of proven scare-mongering, and his troubling fascination with “gain of function” virology.
The Malevolent Midget is gone now, pulling down his handsome pension for his "service," but the evil that he did lives on after him. Should Trump actually overcome the forces arrayed against him and actually pull a Grover Cleveland and get re-elected to the office from which a "fortified" election forcibly ejected him in 2020, a just universe would allow him to deal out some well-deserved payback for the forces behind the Russia Hoax, the Climate-Change Hoax, and the Covid Hoax, not to mention the abrogation of American sovereignty at the southern (and northern) borders, the collapse of the American military into a sob-sisterhood of feminist resentment and gay and "transsexual" triumphalism, and all the other ills currently attendant upon these United States.
What lessons can we learn from this belated admission that the entire clusterkluge was a "mistake"? How to compensate for those who watched their loved ones die from behind a plate-glass window in Mengele Memorial Hospital? For those who -- like a dear friend and mentor of mine -- died from a second shot of the "vaccine" in the early days of the panic? For the families disrupted, restaurants closed, businesses destroyed, industries wrecked -- and all with the witting complicity of the mainstream media, which so enthusiastically hosanna-ed the official narrative, despite the evidence of their own senses?
"Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission." Isn't that how the saying goes? I wrote my answer in this space almost a year ago. Never forgive, never forget I advised;
Latterly, there's a movement afoot by those who brought you the continuing Covid disaster to feign remorse over what they did. Don't buy a word of it. These crocodiles -- a cabal of frightened women and pusillanimous yet power hungry men -- enjoyed every minute of your misery, even as they swan about on their mini non-apology tours and warn direly about the next iteration of the Black Death that is surely headed our (but not their) way. Meanwhile, they're allowed to quietly resign and cash in their enormous pensions, courtesy of you. Will they get away with it? Of course they will. As gangster Johnny Caspar says in the Coen brothers' peerless film, Miller's Crossing: "if you can't trust a fix, what can you trust?"
Hoaxes like these will never end until you do something about it. They will continue to pile on "catastrophe" after "catastrophe," demanding that we do something about it right now, including changing some of our most fundamental laws and principles in order to combat a non-existent "threat." The only thing these people understand is power. Not logic, argument, evidence, moral suasion. And the only way to respond to them is with greater power. Ask yourself this: what would the Romans do? To ask the question is to answer it.
News of the Times;
Alleged audio of German officers discussing Crimean Bridge attack:
https://www.rt.com/news/593555-audio-german-crimean-bridge-attack/
"Fight Your Fight Yourself": Trump Scolds Biden:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/supreme-court-rules-trump-remain-presidential-ballots
CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team:
https://public.substack.com/p/cia-had-foreign-allies-spy-on-trump
COVID Vaccine Shedding Is 'Real', FDA & Pfizer Documents Are Proof::
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/covid-vaccine-shedding-real-fda-and-pfizer-documents-are-proof-clinicians
"Rapes, Robberies, & Shootout" At Darién Gap As Biden's Border Crisis Spreads:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rapes-robberies-shootout-darien-gap-bidens-border-crisis-spreads-chaos
Despite Targeted Funding, California Prisons Didn’t Fix Disciplinary Process:
https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/02/12/waste_of_the_day_despite_targeted_funding_california_prisons_didnt_fix_disciplinary_process_1010628.html
BMW i3 owner confronted with $71,000 bill to replace EV battery:
https://www.wnd.com/2024/02/bmw-i3-owner-confronted-71000-bill-replace-ev-battery/
CNN Anchor Argues US Cities Are Disgusting Because They Are “Expressions Of Democracy”:
https://modernity.news/2024/02/19/cnn-anchor-argues-us-cities-are-disgusting-because-they-are-expressions-of-democracy/
For Socialists, It Doesn't Matter if Socialism "Works.":
https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-power
Albania does favor for NATO amid rising Russia fears:
https://www.rt.com/news/593758-albania-reopens-air-base-for-nato/
Hunter Biden Held Previously Undisclosed Meeting With Spy Chief Of China:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/agent-hunter-ex-partner-says-5-million-sought-quash-ukrainian-indictment-undisclosed
US workforce as universities fail students, business owners:
https://www.campusreform.org/article/prof-giordano-feelings-economy-engulf-us-workforce-universities-fail-students-business-owners-%7D/24896
America’s teenage mental health crisis:
https://nypost.com/2024/03/02/lifestyle/abigail-shrier-reveals-americas-teenage-mental-health-crisis/
Another Jack Smith major “head implosion” going down:
https://revolver.news/2024/03/another-jack-smith-major-head-implosion-going-down-in-3-2-1/
Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony:
https://globalnews.ca/news/5006450/jody-wilson-raybould-testimony-transcript/
Polk?
A study from Harvard's School of Public Health shows that that four cups of coffee per day can lower body fat by approximately 4%.
Somehow I do not weigh 20 pounds.
*.*
Nike and Tiger Woods have gone their separate ways after 27 years.
Yes, they were partners for a lot of years. Although, Tiger is putting down a 26.
*.*
Breakfast pastry lovers around the globe held a moment of silence today after news broke that Bill Post, inventor of the Pop-Tart, had passed away at the age of 96. Post's surviving family announced that he would be laid to rest by being lowered vertically into a thin slot in the ground.
"He would've wanted it this way," said gathered loved ones with a mixture of sadness and appreciation for the man who invented the world's foremost pre-made, packaged breakfast food. The touching ceremony followed Post's expressed wish for his remains to be kept warm and toasty below the earth's surface.
"He had such a delicious personality," said one close friend. "Once you got past his crusty exterior and he warmed up to you, he was really sweet. You could always count on him, he was never too flaky. Whenever things got heated, it only made him even better. We're all going to miss the happiness he would bring to our lives every morning he was around."
Post's long-time coworkers agreed with the kind sentiments. "We all made a toast to Bill this morning when we heard the news," said a man who worked closely with Post for years. "Working with him was wonderful. Sometimes he would be a little too hot to handle at first, but after he had time to cool off, he was always enjoyable."
At publishing time, the finishing touches were being made to Posts's custom-made toaster-themed gravestone. Bill Post is survived by his wife, children, and his twin, who remains alive and will be kept in a foil wrapper and saved for later.
*.*
Top 5 Signs you have a Really Lousy Health Insurance Plan:
Company slogan: "Nope, we don't cover that".
All online reviews include the words, "anyone but them!"
The phrase "satisfy the deductible" has been banned.
You must use a witch doctor.
Only prescription coverage is for leeches.
*.*
According to a survey of city mayors across the country, roads are the number one thing the majority of them hoped to fix while in office.
Number 2 is elections.
Quote of the Times;
“If you ever have to cock a gun in a man’s face, kill him. If you walk away without killing him after doing that, he’ll kill you the next day.” - Murray “the Camel” Humphreys of the Capone mob in Chicago
Link of the Times;
Disgraced Ex-ABC News Reporter James Gordon Meek Sentenced to Only Six Years:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/disgraced-ex-abc-news-reporter-james-gordon-meek/
Issue of the Times;
The Extraordinary Presidency of James K. Polk by Jared Taylor
In 2008, Al Gore told a national television audience that the Mexican-American War has been “condemned by history.” That war, which added more than a million square miles of American territory, was largely the work of one man: President James K. Polk. Liberal orthodoxy therefore spurns Polk as a warmonger and imperialist, but he was one of the most successful Presidents in American history. Anyone not blinded by contemporary self-righteousness would recognize this, and veteran journalist Robert W. Merry has not been blinded. He has written a fascinating, detailed, fair-minded biography of one of our least appreciated Presidents.
When Polk took office in 1845, he had four goals: reduce tariffs, establish an independent treasury, and secure Oregon and California for the United States. He achieved all four goals in just four years, while fighting a war against political opposition that was sometime as fierce as the war against Mexico.
Polk was a protégé of Andrew Jackson, who was 28 years his senior. He first went to Congress in 1825, and, like Jackson, he was a Tennessean. He served one term as governor of Tennessee, but when he lost bids for reelection in 1841 and 1843, many people thought his political career was over.
At the Democratic nominating convention of 1844, Polk had been proposed for the Vice Presidential slot behind Martin Van Buren, but as Van Buren’s popularity faded, Polk emerged as a compromise candidate. In order to win the support of other Democratic pretenders, he promised to serve only one term. Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Silas Wright might have opposed him more vigorously if they feared a second term could thwart their own presidential ambitions. Mr. Merry fills his account of the convention with details that make it clear that personal ambitions and animosities were just as potent political factors 170 years ago as they are today.
Polk’s opponent in the general election, Whig candidate Henry Clay, assumed he would make short work of the relatively unknown Polk, but was brought down largely by the Texas question.
Texas
When Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821 it tried to populate Texas by encouraging American immigration, but as Mr. Merry writes, “the newcomers rejected loyalty to Mexico and cast their devotion to their ethnic brethren in the United States.” Mexico woke up to what was happening and outlawed immigration in 1830, but could not stop it. Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836 and was recognized by the United States and the European powers.
Mexico never accepted Texas independence, however, insisting that there was a state of war between it and its “rebellious province.” The Mexicans even made a few probes as far as San Antonio, but failed to recapture Texas. There was also a huge border disagreement between the Texans and the Mexicans. The Texas congress passed a law officially asserting its claim to the larger area.
Texas was chronically broke during its nine years of independence, and was the subject of constant political intrigue by the French and the British, who wanted to stop American expansion towards the Pacific. The British were particularly active, offering financial assistance to Texas in exchange for an alliance. Polk’s predecessor in the White House, John Tyler, feared that a close association between Texas and Britain would undermine American influence in the Gulf of Mexico and even menace American control over New Orleans (the Battle of New Orleans had been fought only 27 years before Tyler’s inauguration). Tyler had therefore started annexation negotiations with Texas but tried to keep them secret so as to avoid interference by France and Britain.
Although in retrospect nothing seems more natural than Texas joining the union, it was not a sure thing. The last president of Texas, Anson Jones, preferred independence, and the British and French even persuaded the Mexicans to recognize Texas independence if Texas promised never to join the United States.
Nor was American sentiment unanimously pro-annexation. Ordinary people wanted it, but Whigs and abolitionists opposed it. They were afraid annexation would mean war with Mexico, and they did not want another slave state. It was opposition to Texas annexation that caused Van Buren’s star to fade as the Democratic candidate, thus opening the nomination to Polk. And it was opposition to annexation that probably lost the election for Polk’s Whig opponent, Henry Clay. Polk himself had always been a staunch expansionist, and this boosted his popularity with voters.
Opposition to annexation by politicians was strong enough to defeat Congress’s first attempt to bring Texas into the union. President Tyler sent an annexation treaty to the Senate in 1844 at the end of his term but failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority. That was how matters stood when Polk took office in 1845. The new President solved the problem by sending an annexation bill to Congress, which won majority votes in both houses on February 28, 1845. This was a Constitutionally doubtful procedure. Congress had the power to make new states from territories, but Texas was an independent country, not a territory and, by all rights, should have come in by treaty. As Mr. Merry shows, getting Texas into the Union was no easy feat, and owed much to Polk’s determination and political skill.
Of course, by annexing Texas, Polk greatly angered Mexico, which broke off diplomatic relations exactly one month later on March 28, 1845. It declared that the United States had “usurped a portion of territory which belongs to Mexico by a right which she will maintain at whatever cost.” Many people in both countries predicted that Mexico would declare war.
Mexico
What had been American relations with Mexico up to that point? The United States had welcomed Mexican independence from Spain and was the first country to recognize it. It had signed treaties of friendship and mutual recognition of boundaries, and did everything possible to have good relations.
Mexico did not reciprocate. Ruled by thieves and incompetents, the government itself had stolen American property and had done little to prevent Mexican citizens from doing the same. In one notorious incident the American captain of a ship transporting Mexican troops under government contract was killed, and his crew was forced into servitude for three years. American vessels in Mexican ports were routinely seized. There had been nearly 100 such incidents, and Andrew Jackson had declared in 1837, his last year in office, that such “outrages . . . would justify, in the eyes of all nations, immediate war.”
In 1839 there was arbitration between the two countries, and an award of $2 million to the Americans, to be paid in 20 installments. Mexico quickly fell behind on the payments, and new claims continued to pile up. In 1842, a frustrated President Tyler proposed that Mexico hand over California as compensation, with the US government to pay off American claims, but the Mexicans refused.
War was the usual way to settle such claims in those days. The French had already received satisfaction by violent means, and the British were paid after threats of war. Many Americans thought they were being snubbed because they refrained from using force.
Polk did not want war, but he wanted American claims met and he wanted more territory. Magazine editor John O’Sullivan had coined the term “manifest destiny” in 1845, and Polk had a clear vision of the United States straddling the continent.
What were his intentions regarding Mexico? In Mr. Merry’s view, Polk was, first of all, determined to defend the borders of the United States, which he believed extended to the Rio Grande. Second, he was prepared to pay handsomely for as much territory as Mexico was willing to sell. Was he prepared to wage unilateral war? Mr. Merry is uncertain, but when the Mexicans fired the first shots, Polk was more than ready to fire back. In any case, in the summer of 1845, shortly after Mexico broke off relations, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to march into Texas to defend the state against possible attack — but not to enter the disputed territories.
Polk first proposed a diplomatic solution to the Mexicans. In response, in November 1845, Mexico agreed to accept an envoy “with full powers to adjust all the questions in dispute between the two governments.” Polk quickly dispatched John Slidell, with authority to pay as much as $30 million dollars in exchange for California and New
Mexico for assuming responsibility for the American claims. The Slidell mission was kept secret because the French and British were sure to try to sabotage any agreement that would add territory to the United States.
When Slidell got to Mexico City in December, the Mexicans went back on their word and refused to negotiate. This was probably because the government of the time, led by Jose Herrera, was under threat from more bellicose factions that threatened to take power if Herrera discussed the possibility of ceding territory. This rebuff infuriated Slidell, who warned that it could lead to war. Later that same month, Herrera was ousted anyway by Mariano Paredes, who ruled out compromise. He ordered Slidell out of the country, and started mobilizing for war.
It was only after the failure of the Slidell mission that Polk took the fateful step of sending General Taylor into the disputed territory. By March 28, 1845, there were 3,550 American soldiers on the Rio Grande near what is now Brownsville. Across the river was a force of 3,000 Mexicans. Their commander sent a message to Taylor saying he was in Mexican territory, warning him that there would be war if he did not withdraw. Taylor refused to move.
This standoff continued for a month, as the Mexicans brought in more troops, and by April 11, there were 6,000 soldiers on the Mexican side. Taylor then blockaded the Rio Grande, through which the Mexican troops were being supplied. On April 25, the Mexicans sent 1,600 men across the river above Taylor’s position. The next day, he sent 63 men to investigate. They were ambushed, with 11 killed and the rest captured.
When word of the incident reached Washington, Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war, stating that Mexico had “shed American blood on American soil.” As Mr. Merry notes, however, many Whigs accepted the Mexican version of the border and accused Polk of deliberately starting a war in order to wrest land from Mexico. There was much thundering about “invasion” and “waging aggressive war,” but in the end both houses voted by large majorities to declare war. At the time, Polk’s thinking appears to have been that Taylor would conquer enough territory to make Mexico sue for peace. In the meantime, Polk would send forces to occupy New Mexico and California, which would be accepted as compensation for the war.
Oregon
Polk now had a war with Mexico on his hands; he very nearly had one with Britain, too. At the time of his inauguration, the United States and Britain had jointly occupied the Oregon Territory for 22 years, and had pledged to negotiate ultimate ownership. Oregon was being settled at a rate of nine or ten American immigrants to one Briton, and in time, the territory would naturally have fallen into American hands. Polk wanted it right away, and in his inaugural address he angered the British by claiming that Oregon was American. The British posted frigates off the Oregon coast, and there was talk of war.
Mr. Merry charts the course of the clever but risky diplomatic maneuvers that eventually resulted in the current boundary at the 49th parallel. He argues that Polk got what he wanted only through a willingness to go right up to the brink of war. There were hotheads in his own party who demanded a border that would have been just south of Alaska — the “54’ 40” or fight” contingent — but this would unquestionably have meant a second and probably disastrous war. Polk did not get a satisfactory Oregon settlement until June 1846, by which time the Mexican war had already begun. If Polk had delayed, Britain would certainly have exploited the Mexican conflict to drive a harder bargain.
The War
Mr. Merry covers the war with Mexico at a level of fascinating detail that need only be summarized. Taylor fought a number of brilliant engagements, often defeating armies larger than his own, but the Mexicans refused to sue for peace. Polk finally had to send General Winfield Scott on an expedition to Vera Cruz, and the Mexicans agreed to peace talks only after Scott occupied the capital.
As Mr. Merry notes, the Mexicans deceived the gullible Americans several times. For example, at one time General Taylor had bottled up a Mexican army of 7,000 men in Monterrey, and their commander, Pedro de Ampudia sought terms. He claimed that he had word the two countries had started peace talks, and that since the war would soon be over there was no need to take his men prisoner. Taylor fell for this lie, and let the Mexican soldiers leave with their artillery. The escaped army of course went back into action against the Americans.
Perhaps the worst dupe, however, was Polk himself. In 1845 he had received word from Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, then in exile in Cuba, that if he ever returned to power, he would be happy to sell Texas and California for $30 million. In July 1846, after the war had begun, he said that if he gained power, he would sell California, recognize the Rio Grande border, and call off the war. The Paredes government had turned down a similar deal, so Polk instructed the American Navy, which was blockading Mexican ports, to let Santa Anna through. He landed at Vera Cruz in March 1847 to much fanfare, and took power. He then double-crossed Polk, announcing that he intended to roll the Americans all the way back to the Louisiana border.
After Santa Anna was defeated outside Mexico City and fled into the city, he tried to fool General Scott. He negotiated a truce that prohibited construction of fortifications and provided for resupply of the Americans, but broke these conditions.
Santa Anna’s government reluctantly agreed to negotiate. Polk had sent an envoy for this purpose, Nicolas Trist, who was under strict orders to insist on the Rio Grande border and to buy as much of Mexico as possible. Instead, Trist accepted a Mexican proposal offering only part of California, and declaring the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande as a neutral zone. Polk was furious when he learned of this proposal and sent a letter recalling Trist.
In September 1847 Scott renewed the war and took Mexico City in a brilliant campaign. Santa Anna’s government fell, and a new government was formed under General P.M. Anaya. Anaya had a more realistic sense of how little leverage the Mexicans had, and was more willing to accept Polk’s terms. By then, Trist had been recalled, and had no authority to negotiate, but decided to stay in Mexico and see if he could work out an agreement anyway. Polk was again furious when he learned about this, and ordered General Benjamin Butler to expel Trist from the country. Trist replied calmly that since he was no longer an American envoy but a private citizen, the President had no power over him.
The Mexicans knew Trist had no authority, but they were in the mood to negotiate, and spent the winter working out a deal much along the lines of Trist’s original instructions. On February 2, 1848, Mexico agreed to take $15 million in exchange for New Mexico, California, the border at the Rio Grande, and forgiveness of American claims.
Polk believed that the treaty was illegal because it had been negotiated without authorization, but since the 6,000-word document contained everything he wanted — Trist had authority to offer as much as $30 million — he sent it to the Senate for ratification anyway.
Again, what seems in retrospect to have been a sure thing was not. There was much Whig bluster about the propriety of taking territory from a defeated enemy. Abolitionists feared the new territory might become slave states. Some Democrats — members of Polk’s own party — insisted on annexing all of Mexico. Just 19 votes in the Senate could have killed the treaty, and Mr. Merry ably describes the arguments and posturing that lead to the final vote of 38 to 14.
In the end, therefore, Polk got what he wanted, but at a high price. The war killed 13,780 Americans and an estimated 25,000 Mexicans, and cost the federal government $100 million — which, as Mr. Merry explains, Polk had great difficulty raising from Congress. If any other man had been in the White House, it is not at all certain that the United States would have absorbed California and New Mexico.
California
The great majority of the fighting was in Mexico, but there were Western adventures as well. Polk wanted New Mexico and California to be in American hands by the time the Mexicans recognized they were beaten and were ready to negotiate. Therefore, on August 18, 1846, shortly after the war began, American General Stephen Kearny led 1,458 men into Santa Fe, the capital of the Mexican department of New Mexico, and claimed it for the United States. He got it without firing a shot, but the outcome could have been entirely different. The Mexican commander Manuel Armijo had massed 4,000 men around a pass where they could have rained fire down on Kearney’s men as they approached, but at the last minute Armijo lost his nerve, ordered his men to disband, and fled to Mexico. Kearney set up a government in Santa Fe, and set out on September 25 with 300 men for California.
Polk had had his eye on California from the beginning. Mexico had been no better able to populate California than Texas, and Americans were settling in large numbers. Britain, which opposed American expansion, had offered Mexico money and arms with which to assert its sovereignty, and Polk feared eventual British domination in the West. Kearney was therefore under orders to take California as soon as he had secured New Mexico, but others got there first.
John Fremont, with 60 men, had been on a government map-making mission in the Western reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, and had angered the Mexicans by poking around in California even before the war began. After the declaration of war, he raised a small army of several hundred men from among the American settlers, and joined forces with Commodore John Stockton, who arrived in Monterrey in July 23, 1846, and took command of the American fleet.
Together they subdued California, which the Mexicans defended incompetently. This was a free-lance effort, however, since Kearney was the only officer with official orders to conquer California. When Kearney arrived, Stockton submitted to his command, but Fremont did not. This led to his arrest, court martial, and conviction, but Polk eventually pardoned Fremont. The campaigns in the West were a confused mess, which Mr. Merry sorts out nicely.
Westward Expansion
Ordinary Americans were thrilled at the idea of expansion, but many politicians were not. The Whig leader Henry Clay, for example, wanted to keep the American population east of the Rockies, and had no interest in settling Oregon. He was also afraid to absorb Texas: “Annexation and war with Mexico are identical.”
Daniel Webster, another Whig, called Polk’s war not just “a clear violation of duty” but “an impeachable offense.” He considered it an act of naked aggression for which there was no Constitutional authority, and led the fight not to vote funds for the war. He wanted no new, lightly inhabited territories far from Washington. The rising Whig politician Abraham Lincoln also condemned the war.
General Zachery Taylor was another anti-war Whig. This was ironic, since it was the war that made him a hero and enabled him to succeed Polk as President. On the day of his inauguration, as he rode to the Capitol in the same carriage as the outgoing President, he shocked Polk by remarking that New Mexico and California were so far away that he thought they should become independent countries. This was anathema to Polk, who had devoted himself to extending the United States to the Pacific.
Whig objections to expansion seem quaint now, but Mr. Merry notes that when Polk took office, the United States had a population of only 17 million, and the addition of the Louisiana Purchase just a few decades earlier must have made the country seem gigantic. The first steam-locomotive railway started operating only in 1831. Samuel Morse sent his first telegraph message in 1838. Indeed, at many crucial junctures during the Mexican-American war, Polk had no idea what was happening, and heard conflicting rumors before he got official dispatches. San Francisco must have seemed a world away from Washington, and the United States was already a huge country. For many Americans, it was already big enough.
Naked aggression or legitimate conquest?
Was Polk’s conduct of the war legitimate? Mr. Merry seems to have no doubt that by the rules of its era it was. War was a recognized way to force a country to meet its obligations. Indeed, in 1861, France, Britain, and Spain jointly occupied Vera Cruz as part of a military campaign to make Mexico pay its debts. The United States also had a strong, if not undisputed claim to the north bank of the Rio Grande. Polk argued that sending Taylor to the river was legitimate defense of American territory.
In hindsight, it was extremely foolish of the Mexicans to begin hostilities, but Mexico expected to win. Its standing army of 32,000 men was five times that of the United States, and had been toughened by countless revolutions. Its European advisors thought it would make short work of the Americans. The principal theater of the war was expected to be Texas, which would mean long supply lines for the Americans, who had never fought a war outside their own territory. Many Mexicans were also aware of Whig opposition to the war, and believed Americans would not fight in earnest. Paredes boasted that he would not only retake Texas but occupy New Orleans and Mobile. Some Mexicans believed their invading army would be supported by a massive slave uprising, and there was even talk of dictating peace terms from the White House.
Morally and strategically, the western invasion was a different matter; New Mexico and California were indisputably Mexican. However, once war began the rules were different, and territory could be rightly acquired by the law of conquest — though not all Americans agreed. Some Whigs argued that there was no constitutional authority to acquire territory by conquest, but popular sentiment overwhelmingly favored expansion.
Mexicans today complain about “stolen” land, but their claim is weak. They accepted American payment as part of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, thus ratifying the transfer. The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 was a reiteration of the principle of exchanging land for money. Moreover, if the Mexicans had defeated the Americans they would certainly have exercised their own rights under the law of conquest. Had they been able to occupy New Orleans and Mobile they would have felt entitled to keep them.
Mexico gambled on war and lost. It is impossible to predict what Polk would have done had Mexico not “shed American blood on American soil,” but once blood was shed, he was determined to make the most of it. Without Polk, there could have been a different and much smaller United States.
News of the Times;
The US funds Global Islamic Terrorism:
https://deeshaa.org/2010/05/08/the-us-funds-global-islamic-terrorism/
Multiple States Back Texas in Battle with Biden over Border Defense:
https://slaynews.com/news/multiple-states-back-texas-battle-biden-border-defense/
Three Former Presidents Start NGO to Import Illegal Aliens:
https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/22/three-former-presidents-start-ngo-to-import-illegal-aliens-into-the-u-s/
Illegal Alien Arrested and Released for Attack on NYPD Officers Arrested Again:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/illegal-alien-arrested-released-attack-nypd-officers-arrested/
Delta Boeing 757 loses nose wheel while preparing for takeof:
https://notthebee.com/article/daily-airline-update-delta-boeing-757-loses-nose-wheel-on-takeoff
Southwest Airlines Deletes X Post Celebrating “All Female Flight Crew”:
https://modernity.news/2024/01/12/southwest-airlines-deletes-x-post-celebrating-all-female-flight-crew/
FAA's DEI hiring goals include people with "severe intellectual" and "psychiatric" disabilities:
https://notthebee.com/article/the-faas-diversity-hiring-push-includes-a-goal-to-hire-more-people-with-intellectual-and-psychiatric-disabilities
Gazacaust!=Holocaust:
https://voxday.net/2024/01/25/gazacaustholocaust/
Ukrainian army fled Avdeevka in disarray:
https://www.rt.com/russia/592607-ukrainians-fled-avdeevka-chaos/
Caught on Video Gunning Down Pastor in His Driveway in Front of His Wife and Children
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/evil-female-neighbor-caught-video-gunning-down-beloved/
Diversity Training Increases Prejudice:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/diversity-training-increases-prejudice-activates-bigotry-among-participants-new-study
Google (Kinda) Apologizes After Woke AI:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/googles-gemini-ai-blasted-eliminating-white-people-image-searches
Europe’s Low Emission Zones Aren't Going Over Well:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/driving-dystopia-europes-low-emission-zones-aren-t-going-over-well-44505043
German industry ‘moving abroad:
https://www.rt.com/business/592225-german-industry-relocation-plans/
A Handbook on Ethical Companies in Tabletop Gaming:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RlX78Yw9lbUMk2QwAZdpwNRGAd4Xe69eFgnFymWz6M0/edit#heading=h.s9uvg7c5ig4j
Somehow I do not weigh 20 pounds.
*.*
Nike and Tiger Woods have gone their separate ways after 27 years.
Yes, they were partners for a lot of years. Although, Tiger is putting down a 26.
*.*
Breakfast pastry lovers around the globe held a moment of silence today after news broke that Bill Post, inventor of the Pop-Tart, had passed away at the age of 96. Post's surviving family announced that he would be laid to rest by being lowered vertically into a thin slot in the ground.
"He would've wanted it this way," said gathered loved ones with a mixture of sadness and appreciation for the man who invented the world's foremost pre-made, packaged breakfast food. The touching ceremony followed Post's expressed wish for his remains to be kept warm and toasty below the earth's surface.
"He had such a delicious personality," said one close friend. "Once you got past his crusty exterior and he warmed up to you, he was really sweet. You could always count on him, he was never too flaky. Whenever things got heated, it only made him even better. We're all going to miss the happiness he would bring to our lives every morning he was around."
Post's long-time coworkers agreed with the kind sentiments. "We all made a toast to Bill this morning when we heard the news," said a man who worked closely with Post for years. "Working with him was wonderful. Sometimes he would be a little too hot to handle at first, but after he had time to cool off, he was always enjoyable."
At publishing time, the finishing touches were being made to Posts's custom-made toaster-themed gravestone. Bill Post is survived by his wife, children, and his twin, who remains alive and will be kept in a foil wrapper and saved for later.
*.*
Top 5 Signs you have a Really Lousy Health Insurance Plan:
Company slogan: "Nope, we don't cover that".
All online reviews include the words, "anyone but them!"
The phrase "satisfy the deductible" has been banned.
You must use a witch doctor.
Only prescription coverage is for leeches.
*.*
According to a survey of city mayors across the country, roads are the number one thing the majority of them hoped to fix while in office.
Number 2 is elections.
Quote of the Times;
“If you ever have to cock a gun in a man’s face, kill him. If you walk away without killing him after doing that, he’ll kill you the next day.” - Murray “the Camel” Humphreys of the Capone mob in Chicago
Link of the Times;
Disgraced Ex-ABC News Reporter James Gordon Meek Sentenced to Only Six Years:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/disgraced-ex-abc-news-reporter-james-gordon-meek/
Issue of the Times;
The Extraordinary Presidency of James K. Polk by Jared Taylor
In 2008, Al Gore told a national television audience that the Mexican-American War has been “condemned by history.” That war, which added more than a million square miles of American territory, was largely the work of one man: President James K. Polk. Liberal orthodoxy therefore spurns Polk as a warmonger and imperialist, but he was one of the most successful Presidents in American history. Anyone not blinded by contemporary self-righteousness would recognize this, and veteran journalist Robert W. Merry has not been blinded. He has written a fascinating, detailed, fair-minded biography of one of our least appreciated Presidents.
When Polk took office in 1845, he had four goals: reduce tariffs, establish an independent treasury, and secure Oregon and California for the United States. He achieved all four goals in just four years, while fighting a war against political opposition that was sometime as fierce as the war against Mexico.
Polk was a protégé of Andrew Jackson, who was 28 years his senior. He first went to Congress in 1825, and, like Jackson, he was a Tennessean. He served one term as governor of Tennessee, but when he lost bids for reelection in 1841 and 1843, many people thought his political career was over.
At the Democratic nominating convention of 1844, Polk had been proposed for the Vice Presidential slot behind Martin Van Buren, but as Van Buren’s popularity faded, Polk emerged as a compromise candidate. In order to win the support of other Democratic pretenders, he promised to serve only one term. Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Silas Wright might have opposed him more vigorously if they feared a second term could thwart their own presidential ambitions. Mr. Merry fills his account of the convention with details that make it clear that personal ambitions and animosities were just as potent political factors 170 years ago as they are today.
Polk’s opponent in the general election, Whig candidate Henry Clay, assumed he would make short work of the relatively unknown Polk, but was brought down largely by the Texas question.
Texas
When Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821 it tried to populate Texas by encouraging American immigration, but as Mr. Merry writes, “the newcomers rejected loyalty to Mexico and cast their devotion to their ethnic brethren in the United States.” Mexico woke up to what was happening and outlawed immigration in 1830, but could not stop it. Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836 and was recognized by the United States and the European powers.
Mexico never accepted Texas independence, however, insisting that there was a state of war between it and its “rebellious province.” The Mexicans even made a few probes as far as San Antonio, but failed to recapture Texas. There was also a huge border disagreement between the Texans and the Mexicans. The Texas congress passed a law officially asserting its claim to the larger area.
Texas was chronically broke during its nine years of independence, and was the subject of constant political intrigue by the French and the British, who wanted to stop American expansion towards the Pacific. The British were particularly active, offering financial assistance to Texas in exchange for an alliance. Polk’s predecessor in the White House, John Tyler, feared that a close association between Texas and Britain would undermine American influence in the Gulf of Mexico and even menace American control over New Orleans (the Battle of New Orleans had been fought only 27 years before Tyler’s inauguration). Tyler had therefore started annexation negotiations with Texas but tried to keep them secret so as to avoid interference by France and Britain.
Although in retrospect nothing seems more natural than Texas joining the union, it was not a sure thing. The last president of Texas, Anson Jones, preferred independence, and the British and French even persuaded the Mexicans to recognize Texas independence if Texas promised never to join the United States.
Nor was American sentiment unanimously pro-annexation. Ordinary people wanted it, but Whigs and abolitionists opposed it. They were afraid annexation would mean war with Mexico, and they did not want another slave state. It was opposition to Texas annexation that caused Van Buren’s star to fade as the Democratic candidate, thus opening the nomination to Polk. And it was opposition to annexation that probably lost the election for Polk’s Whig opponent, Henry Clay. Polk himself had always been a staunch expansionist, and this boosted his popularity with voters.
Opposition to annexation by politicians was strong enough to defeat Congress’s first attempt to bring Texas into the union. President Tyler sent an annexation treaty to the Senate in 1844 at the end of his term but failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority. That was how matters stood when Polk took office in 1845. The new President solved the problem by sending an annexation bill to Congress, which won majority votes in both houses on February 28, 1845. This was a Constitutionally doubtful procedure. Congress had the power to make new states from territories, but Texas was an independent country, not a territory and, by all rights, should have come in by treaty. As Mr. Merry shows, getting Texas into the Union was no easy feat, and owed much to Polk’s determination and political skill.
Of course, by annexing Texas, Polk greatly angered Mexico, which broke off diplomatic relations exactly one month later on March 28, 1845. It declared that the United States had “usurped a portion of territory which belongs to Mexico by a right which she will maintain at whatever cost.” Many people in both countries predicted that Mexico would declare war.
Mexico
What had been American relations with Mexico up to that point? The United States had welcomed Mexican independence from Spain and was the first country to recognize it. It had signed treaties of friendship and mutual recognition of boundaries, and did everything possible to have good relations.
Mexico did not reciprocate. Ruled by thieves and incompetents, the government itself had stolen American property and had done little to prevent Mexican citizens from doing the same. In one notorious incident the American captain of a ship transporting Mexican troops under government contract was killed, and his crew was forced into servitude for three years. American vessels in Mexican ports were routinely seized. There had been nearly 100 such incidents, and Andrew Jackson had declared in 1837, his last year in office, that such “outrages . . . would justify, in the eyes of all nations, immediate war.”
In 1839 there was arbitration between the two countries, and an award of $2 million to the Americans, to be paid in 20 installments. Mexico quickly fell behind on the payments, and new claims continued to pile up. In 1842, a frustrated President Tyler proposed that Mexico hand over California as compensation, with the US government to pay off American claims, but the Mexicans refused.
War was the usual way to settle such claims in those days. The French had already received satisfaction by violent means, and the British were paid after threats of war. Many Americans thought they were being snubbed because they refrained from using force.
Polk did not want war, but he wanted American claims met and he wanted more territory. Magazine editor John O’Sullivan had coined the term “manifest destiny” in 1845, and Polk had a clear vision of the United States straddling the continent.
What were his intentions regarding Mexico? In Mr. Merry’s view, Polk was, first of all, determined to defend the borders of the United States, which he believed extended to the Rio Grande. Second, he was prepared to pay handsomely for as much territory as Mexico was willing to sell. Was he prepared to wage unilateral war? Mr. Merry is uncertain, but when the Mexicans fired the first shots, Polk was more than ready to fire back. In any case, in the summer of 1845, shortly after Mexico broke off relations, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to march into Texas to defend the state against possible attack — but not to enter the disputed territories.
Polk first proposed a diplomatic solution to the Mexicans. In response, in November 1845, Mexico agreed to accept an envoy “with full powers to adjust all the questions in dispute between the two governments.” Polk quickly dispatched John Slidell, with authority to pay as much as $30 million dollars in exchange for California and New
Mexico for assuming responsibility for the American claims. The Slidell mission was kept secret because the French and British were sure to try to sabotage any agreement that would add territory to the United States.
When Slidell got to Mexico City in December, the Mexicans went back on their word and refused to negotiate. This was probably because the government of the time, led by Jose Herrera, was under threat from more bellicose factions that threatened to take power if Herrera discussed the possibility of ceding territory. This rebuff infuriated Slidell, who warned that it could lead to war. Later that same month, Herrera was ousted anyway by Mariano Paredes, who ruled out compromise. He ordered Slidell out of the country, and started mobilizing for war.
It was only after the failure of the Slidell mission that Polk took the fateful step of sending General Taylor into the disputed territory. By March 28, 1845, there were 3,550 American soldiers on the Rio Grande near what is now Brownsville. Across the river was a force of 3,000 Mexicans. Their commander sent a message to Taylor saying he was in Mexican territory, warning him that there would be war if he did not withdraw. Taylor refused to move.
This standoff continued for a month, as the Mexicans brought in more troops, and by April 11, there were 6,000 soldiers on the Mexican side. Taylor then blockaded the Rio Grande, through which the Mexican troops were being supplied. On April 25, the Mexicans sent 1,600 men across the river above Taylor’s position. The next day, he sent 63 men to investigate. They were ambushed, with 11 killed and the rest captured.
When word of the incident reached Washington, Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war, stating that Mexico had “shed American blood on American soil.” As Mr. Merry notes, however, many Whigs accepted the Mexican version of the border and accused Polk of deliberately starting a war in order to wrest land from Mexico. There was much thundering about “invasion” and “waging aggressive war,” but in the end both houses voted by large majorities to declare war. At the time, Polk’s thinking appears to have been that Taylor would conquer enough territory to make Mexico sue for peace. In the meantime, Polk would send forces to occupy New Mexico and California, which would be accepted as compensation for the war.
Oregon
Polk now had a war with Mexico on his hands; he very nearly had one with Britain, too. At the time of his inauguration, the United States and Britain had jointly occupied the Oregon Territory for 22 years, and had pledged to negotiate ultimate ownership. Oregon was being settled at a rate of nine or ten American immigrants to one Briton, and in time, the territory would naturally have fallen into American hands. Polk wanted it right away, and in his inaugural address he angered the British by claiming that Oregon was American. The British posted frigates off the Oregon coast, and there was talk of war.
Mr. Merry charts the course of the clever but risky diplomatic maneuvers that eventually resulted in the current boundary at the 49th parallel. He argues that Polk got what he wanted only through a willingness to go right up to the brink of war. There were hotheads in his own party who demanded a border that would have been just south of Alaska — the “54’ 40” or fight” contingent — but this would unquestionably have meant a second and probably disastrous war. Polk did not get a satisfactory Oregon settlement until June 1846, by which time the Mexican war had already begun. If Polk had delayed, Britain would certainly have exploited the Mexican conflict to drive a harder bargain.
The War
Mr. Merry covers the war with Mexico at a level of fascinating detail that need only be summarized. Taylor fought a number of brilliant engagements, often defeating armies larger than his own, but the Mexicans refused to sue for peace. Polk finally had to send General Winfield Scott on an expedition to Vera Cruz, and the Mexicans agreed to peace talks only after Scott occupied the capital.
As Mr. Merry notes, the Mexicans deceived the gullible Americans several times. For example, at one time General Taylor had bottled up a Mexican army of 7,000 men in Monterrey, and their commander, Pedro de Ampudia sought terms. He claimed that he had word the two countries had started peace talks, and that since the war would soon be over there was no need to take his men prisoner. Taylor fell for this lie, and let the Mexican soldiers leave with their artillery. The escaped army of course went back into action against the Americans.
Perhaps the worst dupe, however, was Polk himself. In 1845 he had received word from Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, then in exile in Cuba, that if he ever returned to power, he would be happy to sell Texas and California for $30 million. In July 1846, after the war had begun, he said that if he gained power, he would sell California, recognize the Rio Grande border, and call off the war. The Paredes government had turned down a similar deal, so Polk instructed the American Navy, which was blockading Mexican ports, to let Santa Anna through. He landed at Vera Cruz in March 1847 to much fanfare, and took power. He then double-crossed Polk, announcing that he intended to roll the Americans all the way back to the Louisiana border.
After Santa Anna was defeated outside Mexico City and fled into the city, he tried to fool General Scott. He negotiated a truce that prohibited construction of fortifications and provided for resupply of the Americans, but broke these conditions.
Santa Anna’s government reluctantly agreed to negotiate. Polk had sent an envoy for this purpose, Nicolas Trist, who was under strict orders to insist on the Rio Grande border and to buy as much of Mexico as possible. Instead, Trist accepted a Mexican proposal offering only part of California, and declaring the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande as a neutral zone. Polk was furious when he learned of this proposal and sent a letter recalling Trist.
In September 1847 Scott renewed the war and took Mexico City in a brilliant campaign. Santa Anna’s government fell, and a new government was formed under General P.M. Anaya. Anaya had a more realistic sense of how little leverage the Mexicans had, and was more willing to accept Polk’s terms. By then, Trist had been recalled, and had no authority to negotiate, but decided to stay in Mexico and see if he could work out an agreement anyway. Polk was again furious when he learned about this, and ordered General Benjamin Butler to expel Trist from the country. Trist replied calmly that since he was no longer an American envoy but a private citizen, the President had no power over him.
The Mexicans knew Trist had no authority, but they were in the mood to negotiate, and spent the winter working out a deal much along the lines of Trist’s original instructions. On February 2, 1848, Mexico agreed to take $15 million in exchange for New Mexico, California, the border at the Rio Grande, and forgiveness of American claims.
Polk believed that the treaty was illegal because it had been negotiated without authorization, but since the 6,000-word document contained everything he wanted — Trist had authority to offer as much as $30 million — he sent it to the Senate for ratification anyway.
Again, what seems in retrospect to have been a sure thing was not. There was much Whig bluster about the propriety of taking territory from a defeated enemy. Abolitionists feared the new territory might become slave states. Some Democrats — members of Polk’s own party — insisted on annexing all of Mexico. Just 19 votes in the Senate could have killed the treaty, and Mr. Merry ably describes the arguments and posturing that lead to the final vote of 38 to 14.
In the end, therefore, Polk got what he wanted, but at a high price. The war killed 13,780 Americans and an estimated 25,000 Mexicans, and cost the federal government $100 million — which, as Mr. Merry explains, Polk had great difficulty raising from Congress. If any other man had been in the White House, it is not at all certain that the United States would have absorbed California and New Mexico.
California
The great majority of the fighting was in Mexico, but there were Western adventures as well. Polk wanted New Mexico and California to be in American hands by the time the Mexicans recognized they were beaten and were ready to negotiate. Therefore, on August 18, 1846, shortly after the war began, American General Stephen Kearny led 1,458 men into Santa Fe, the capital of the Mexican department of New Mexico, and claimed it for the United States. He got it without firing a shot, but the outcome could have been entirely different. The Mexican commander Manuel Armijo had massed 4,000 men around a pass where they could have rained fire down on Kearney’s men as they approached, but at the last minute Armijo lost his nerve, ordered his men to disband, and fled to Mexico. Kearney set up a government in Santa Fe, and set out on September 25 with 300 men for California.
Polk had had his eye on California from the beginning. Mexico had been no better able to populate California than Texas, and Americans were settling in large numbers. Britain, which opposed American expansion, had offered Mexico money and arms with which to assert its sovereignty, and Polk feared eventual British domination in the West. Kearney was therefore under orders to take California as soon as he had secured New Mexico, but others got there first.
John Fremont, with 60 men, had been on a government map-making mission in the Western reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, and had angered the Mexicans by poking around in California even before the war began. After the declaration of war, he raised a small army of several hundred men from among the American settlers, and joined forces with Commodore John Stockton, who arrived in Monterrey in July 23, 1846, and took command of the American fleet.
Together they subdued California, which the Mexicans defended incompetently. This was a free-lance effort, however, since Kearney was the only officer with official orders to conquer California. When Kearney arrived, Stockton submitted to his command, but Fremont did not. This led to his arrest, court martial, and conviction, but Polk eventually pardoned Fremont. The campaigns in the West were a confused mess, which Mr. Merry sorts out nicely.
Westward Expansion
Ordinary Americans were thrilled at the idea of expansion, but many politicians were not. The Whig leader Henry Clay, for example, wanted to keep the American population east of the Rockies, and had no interest in settling Oregon. He was also afraid to absorb Texas: “Annexation and war with Mexico are identical.”
Daniel Webster, another Whig, called Polk’s war not just “a clear violation of duty” but “an impeachable offense.” He considered it an act of naked aggression for which there was no Constitutional authority, and led the fight not to vote funds for the war. He wanted no new, lightly inhabited territories far from Washington. The rising Whig politician Abraham Lincoln also condemned the war.
General Zachery Taylor was another anti-war Whig. This was ironic, since it was the war that made him a hero and enabled him to succeed Polk as President. On the day of his inauguration, as he rode to the Capitol in the same carriage as the outgoing President, he shocked Polk by remarking that New Mexico and California were so far away that he thought they should become independent countries. This was anathema to Polk, who had devoted himself to extending the United States to the Pacific.
Whig objections to expansion seem quaint now, but Mr. Merry notes that when Polk took office, the United States had a population of only 17 million, and the addition of the Louisiana Purchase just a few decades earlier must have made the country seem gigantic. The first steam-locomotive railway started operating only in 1831. Samuel Morse sent his first telegraph message in 1838. Indeed, at many crucial junctures during the Mexican-American war, Polk had no idea what was happening, and heard conflicting rumors before he got official dispatches. San Francisco must have seemed a world away from Washington, and the United States was already a huge country. For many Americans, it was already big enough.
Naked aggression or legitimate conquest?
Was Polk’s conduct of the war legitimate? Mr. Merry seems to have no doubt that by the rules of its era it was. War was a recognized way to force a country to meet its obligations. Indeed, in 1861, France, Britain, and Spain jointly occupied Vera Cruz as part of a military campaign to make Mexico pay its debts. The United States also had a strong, if not undisputed claim to the north bank of the Rio Grande. Polk argued that sending Taylor to the river was legitimate defense of American territory.
In hindsight, it was extremely foolish of the Mexicans to begin hostilities, but Mexico expected to win. Its standing army of 32,000 men was five times that of the United States, and had been toughened by countless revolutions. Its European advisors thought it would make short work of the Americans. The principal theater of the war was expected to be Texas, which would mean long supply lines for the Americans, who had never fought a war outside their own territory. Many Mexicans were also aware of Whig opposition to the war, and believed Americans would not fight in earnest. Paredes boasted that he would not only retake Texas but occupy New Orleans and Mobile. Some Mexicans believed their invading army would be supported by a massive slave uprising, and there was even talk of dictating peace terms from the White House.
Morally and strategically, the western invasion was a different matter; New Mexico and California were indisputably Mexican. However, once war began the rules were different, and territory could be rightly acquired by the law of conquest — though not all Americans agreed. Some Whigs argued that there was no constitutional authority to acquire territory by conquest, but popular sentiment overwhelmingly favored expansion.
Mexicans today complain about “stolen” land, but their claim is weak. They accepted American payment as part of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, thus ratifying the transfer. The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 was a reiteration of the principle of exchanging land for money. Moreover, if the Mexicans had defeated the Americans they would certainly have exercised their own rights under the law of conquest. Had they been able to occupy New Orleans and Mobile they would have felt entitled to keep them.
Mexico gambled on war and lost. It is impossible to predict what Polk would have done had Mexico not “shed American blood on American soil,” but once blood was shed, he was determined to make the most of it. Without Polk, there could have been a different and much smaller United States.
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No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.