All posts by the_neuse_river_curmudgeon@nc.rr.com

AUTOPEN

Now that is Trump’s name for Magoo but I’m sticking Magoo because it is an accurate description of former idiot in chief.

Now I know that the Supremes have previously held that autopien signatures are legitimate if in fact the president specifically authorized it. If he didn’t then a whole host of EO’s and pardons etc. are invalid and non binding.

The Republican house and senate are planning on calling many members of the Magoo administration to testify about Magoo’s mental acuity. They haven’t subpoenaed them yet which is ridiculous. Quit being pussies and cut to the chase and get them in and on tv. Also call Jill McBiden and Hunter.

But here’s the most important thing they should do. Subpoena Magoo! He has no immunity and question him live on tv about each pardon and EO he signed. Start off by asking why didn’t he an EO that he actually signed and see if he knows. Ask him why some ridiculous EO’s were signed and let the world see that he is clueless about almost everything he allegedly did in office. I heard tonight that one of the first things he signed was an EO to close the border. Ask him why he didn’t assure that it was followed through on.

Stop playing nice to get sound bites and actually get something done. You may only have until the midterms to get it done.

THE SUPREMES AND NEPA

On Thursday the Supremes issued a decision on the National Environmental Policy Act and Environmental Impact Statements that will greatly facilitate Trump’s efforts to bring energy independence to the nation.

First I have a great deal of knowledge about EIS because one job I had as a faculty member at UF law school was to supervise a federal grant program summarizing and cataloging EIS on projects impacting the sea and coastal development.

The case is Seven Counties versus Eagle County. The issue at stake was approval of an 88 mile railroad line connecting a very oil rich area in Utah to the main railroads that would connect with refineries on the Gulf Coast. It was approved but then challenged and disapproved because it didn’t take into account the potential environmental impacts that might result from the fact that the railroad might result in increased oil and gas mining in Utah and increased refining on the Gulf Coast and other secondary possibilities.

The Supremes in an 8-0 opinion with Gorsuch abstaining, and I don’t know why and didn’t look it up but I did read the opinion, held that agencies when considering potential environmental impacts of infrastructure projects only need to consider potential impacts of the project itself and not potential upstream or downstream impacts. And this is a great result. These out of control judges have used impact statements to manufacture all kinds of nonsense to delay and cancel projects. Now the involved agency only needs to consider the actual impacts of the project involved, not other factors, and if they do that courts can not second guess their approval of projects.

JUDICIAL OVERREACH

I know I have commented on this briefly before but it’s time to step it up. I know that Trump wants to abide by judicial orders, but I think it’s time to call out their nonsense. These unelected judges don’t have the authority to decide the foreign policy of the United States or the immigration policy or tariff policy. I appreciate that Trump doesn’t want to create a perceived constitutional crisis, but he needs to recognize that we are already in a constitutional crisis. Nowhere in the constitution is there authority for these judges to assume the power of the president. And this can’t continue. The founders viewed the judiciary as inferior to the executive and legislative branches. They never envisioned that we would be a judocrasy and we should not be. ( I may have made up that word.)

It’s time in my opinion for the Trump administration to say to a court that you don’t have jurisdiction and the plaintiffs don’t have standing and we will not participate in this farce. And let these power hungry judges try to get Pam Bondi to enforce their nonsense. Not going to happen and I believe that the people will agree with Trump. Enough is enough!

OBSERVATION AND QUESTION

I noticed over the past few days what should have been obvious earlier. They keep showing Magoo shirtless at the beach virtually every weekend and he is a pasty white guy. I mean really white! How is that possible? I go to the beach every summer, except last year because of hurricanes canceling my vacation, and I don’t sit in the sun but still manage to get a tan on all my exposed skin, even my head which gets even burned from indirect sunlight bouncing off from everywhere. So how does Magoo avoid getting a tan?

HARVARD

First I haven’t ranted in a while because there hasn’t really been any thing worth commenting on. However I will comment on Harvard because all sorts of alumni are claiming that Trump’s cutting research funds to Harvard will hurt the country. Now some making such claims are people who were involved with the university decades ago like myself. Today with DEI and the other bullshit, it’s clear that the best and the brightest are no longer the researchers. It’s an amalgamation of ticket punchers. So I’m not concerned that real research will suffer.

And just to emphasize my point, Harvard and other Ivy League universities charge a 40% administrative overhead charge on federal grants. Private sector companies charge an administrative fee of 10% to 15%. The result is that now Harvard has more faculty and staff than students. This is utter nonsense. All these DEI program and other nonsense programs should not be funded by taxpayers who disagree with the bs.

I have said it before and will again. Today’s teachers unions have done nothing to advance education in this country. The nonsense that we have to pay for bloated staffs and decreasing class size is just that.

As I have said previously, when I went to Catholic grade school in Tampa, there were two classes for each grade between kindergarten and the eighth grade. Each class had between fifty and sixty students and we learned a lot. The the staff consisted of one of the teaching nuns also being the principal and a minimalist staff with cafeteria staff and a couple of janitors and we had a coach who handled PE and also coached the football, basketball and baseball teams.

Now from a DEI perspective we would not pass muster because I don’t remember any blacks in any of my classes, but that was not because of discrimination. There were a plethora of Hispanic students mainly from Cuba and Puerto Rico. The reason that there were no black students was because it was a Catholic school and there were no black Catholic kids trying to get in. There were few if any black Catholic people back in the 50’s or 60’s. And when one kid said nigger in class the nun shut him down and said we don’t use that word in this school.

Now when my daughter went to Catholic school in Maryland many years later she had blacks in her class and she even went to senior prom with a black date.

BOOKS

I don’t understand how all these media pundits and loser politicians and former swamp rats, like Comey, can make money off books. Who buys them? Who wants to spend money on whatever drivel Hillary spews? I can’t imagine who would spend good money on this crap.

TRUMP

One of the things I like best is that Trump has the ability to work the room no matter what the room is. He’s comfortable in all situations and takes no prisoners. Today was a perfect example. He basically de-pants the President of South Africa and brought the receipts. Then in the afternoon he welcomed my National Champion Florida Gators and worked the room like a professional comedian. He just is amazing in a way no other president has been with the possible exception of JFK who also gave as good as he got.

Now the next thing I was going to add was covered by Gutfeld in his opening monologue. Namely that he has selected a cabinet of serious people who are not afraid to embarrass congressional members in committee hearings and I love it. Now as a few people have noted, it’s because they know that he has there back.

The one thing no one has mentioned that is also a big part of their ability to take on Dems is the fact that the Republicans have control of both houses and so any committee meeting is chaired by a Republican who is willing to let them answer questions and skewer the Dems. If the Democrats were in charge they would never get the chance to respond to the questions and would probably be held in contempt if they did.

BAIT AND SWITCH

Trump promised that there would be no tax on social security. At this point he didn’t deliver. While the Fox pundits continue to lie and say that the one big beautiful bill contains no tax on social security. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bill in the House contains a $4000 dollar regular deduction, not a tax credit, for social security recipients . This is a huge difference and considering that the it will be phased out through 2029 I think. And it also reduces the amount of the deduction based on income I think starting at $75 K and probably means that I will get no tax break.

First I know serendipitously that eliminating income tax on social security would reduce my income tax by over $4000 because last year I had all my tax done because I couldn’t find my W-2 from the SSA. So I got it on line and put it in and my tax went up by over $4000. And I was looking forward to Trump giving me a $4000 raise, and he may still be giving lip service to this but he didn’t get through the House.

Now just so you understand what the difference is. If you say have $100K gross income and the applicable tax rate is 15%, your tax is $15K. Now assuming your gross social security is $20K, then your tax would be $80K times 15% or $12k . You would save at least $3K. I say at least $3K because in all likelihood the tax rate would be less and you would save even more.

Now let’s compare that to what they are apparently doing. You get to deduct $4000 from your 100K and then pay tax on $96K would be 14.4K. A savings of $600! Thus the whole thing coming out of the House is just insulting and in my case wouldn’t do anything.

BTW The numbers used above are not reflective of my actual numbers.

COMEY

I have ranted about this before but it’s time to indict and prosecute the law breaking Dems. Today Comey posted a picture of supposedly random seashells forming 86 – 47. Now in case you don’t know that is generally considered in the restaurant business to mean to cancel an order or option. However outside the restaurant business it means either take them out of town 8 miles and bury them 6 feet under, or that the normal grave is dug 8 feet wide and 6 feet deep. This was clearly a call to assassinate Trump. He needs to be indicted and prosecuted for this but also his multiple perjuries. He signed off on four FISA warrants that were false and lied to Congress.

Now his claim that he came across the seashells forming 86-47 is just ridiculous. I have walked a lot of beaches and seen a lot of shells and none ever formed a number or anything else. The odds that he stumbled about this are ZERO!

But continuing on on this subject, the congressmen who assaulted ICE people must be arrested and prosecuted. The evidence is on body cams and they are not above the law. AOC daring anyone to lay a hand on them is complete nonsense. She has zero power to do anything and is probably concerned because she has broken the law herself with helping illegals to avoid deportation.

The point of this rant is that the Dems will never stop their bs until several are faced with incarceration. As long as republicans continue to let them get away with defying the law, they will continue to do it. LOCK THEM UP!