As a change of pace, I want to talk about my new favorite commercial — GRAVITE. You might think it’s the Jaguar debacle but that’s so stupid that it’s not worth comment. No it’s the commercial which I’m sure you have seen where gorgeous women put on blindfolds and then a good looking guy, much like myself lol, walks silently by them and they all swoon from the smell and want him. Every time I see it my first thought is that I would like to see the commercial with Quasimodo wearing the cologne and seeing if the same result ensued.

Or a guy who I loved in Maryland. He was a seriously goofy looking dude who owned it and I loved him. Think the yellow pervert in Sin City without the yellow and the pervert and just think the goofy looking dude. He looked in the mirror and didn’t deny reality. He had vanity license plates that said MARTIAN! Every time I passed him on the road I gave him a thumbs up and he loved it.

Or maybe as the comedian Jim Jeffries once said about burn victims that they are said to be burned beyond recognition and he said nothing could be further from the truth. If you were at a party they were the most recognizable people there. It should be burned to recognition. Put him in that commercial and then maybe I would believe it.

I thought about doing this earlier today but decided not to but then it just came up again. As you may remember I connected the two in an earlier rant and to my surprise only one of you got the reference. I thought all of you would get it because I knew about it and there is no way I should know about the Ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata but I do and have both read the play and seen it performed live on stage. I don’t know why I know it but I assumed as I usually do that if I know something you know it unless it involves the law or some scientific or engineering subject. Now what surprises me most is that the connection has never been made in all the media I have seen discussing 4B.

Finally today I saw an article that discussed it. Enjoy.

Here’s the link to the first article I saw today about the Amish.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/11/25/amish-volunteers-built-100-tiny-homes-for-hurricane-victims-but-guess-what-happened-next-n4934609

In another slap in the face to the people of western North Carolina, our ridiculous bureaucrats have rejected Amish built tiny homes for not being up to code. First as you know, we have hundreds of FEMA trailers sitting idle in this state while people are freezing in lean-tos and tents.

Now to make matters worse, Amish carpenters traveled down from Lancaster, PA with their own tools and building materials and constructed at their own expense over a hundred tiny homes for the people in need and they were being occupied by people in need. Now some asshole bureaucrats have made them move out because they aren’t up to code. Now if there’s one thing I can guarantee you is that if Amish carpenters build something you can bet your ass that it is solid. They are fantastic carpenters. I don’t know what the basis for the rejection is. Maybe no toilet system or running water or electricity. I don’t know but do the tents you’re forcing them back into have that?

Our Dem governor and his administration as well as the Magoo FEMA don’t give a damn about the republicans hurt by the hurricanes.

Trump has nominated Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be Secretary of Labor. She is a pro-labor Republican Congresswoman from Oregon. First she will not affect the Republican majority in the next Congress because she lost her bid for reelection and has only two months left.

Now I’m conflicted by this nomination. On the one hand Trump won the election in part because of union voters. Not the union bosses who were against him but the rank and file who voted their best interests. The UAW workers were concerned for their livelihoods if EV mandates were implemented. Union workers voted for the Keystone XL pipeline and drill baby drill because it was in their best interests. And thus I can understand Trump nominating a pro union individual.

On the other hand I don’t understand nominating a woman who is a co-sponsor of the PRO Act, a massive overhaul of the NLRA Act. Most importantly it would eliminate the right to work laws in all states. At present there are 27 states that have such laws. With the elimination of right to work laws anyone who wants to work in a union business would be required to pay dues. There are several other odious provisions and some would be clearly unconstitutional following recent cases repealing the Chevron Doctrine that I have previously covered.

Now I don’t know but I suspect that the union workers that voted for Trump did not vote for him because they thought he would eliminate non-union workers. They voted for their pocket books. So I’m very concerned that he nominated someone who favors union workers over all other workers. He never ran on that.

And just in case you don’t know, and I’m sure that at least two of you do, when there is an election to determine whether or not to unionize, the majority of those who vote win just like with our presidential election. So if you have a potential bargaining unit of 10,000 workers and 200 vote for and 100 vote against, the union wins. In my agency, the bargaining unit was about 2000 and approximately 170 voted for the union and 80 voted against. Fortunately in federal employment law, the people who didn’t vote didn’t have to join the union or pay dues. In fact I won an Unfair Labor Practice suit against the union because they had a policy that if you joined the union and paid dues you would get a union attorney to represent you in grievances or adverse actions and if not you would get a union steward, and under the law they were required to represent all members of the bargaining unit. When the case got to the DC Circuit, the judges ruled against the union without even hearing from our side. The sad reality was that would have been better off with the stewards because the union attorneys were not good.

(As an aside and I think I have mentioned this before in the oral argument before, when one of the attorneys finished arguing he backed up and missed his chair and fell flat on his ass and even the judges laughed.)

Now a big difference in voting in a union election and voting in a presidential election is that in union election you have to pay money if they win.

Now I also want to point out that I don’t believe eliminating right to work is constitutional. It involves freedom of association and speech. And there was a Supreme Court decision a while back involving California that said that. I don’t recall if it was just teachers or all state employees but they held that you can’t require someone to join a group or contribute money to people advocating for things you disagree with. I don’t recall if there was anything in the decision that somehow limited to government employees and am as always too lazy to look it up, but I don’t think this Supreme Court would draw a distinction.

in conclusion I wish he hadn’t nominated her but he can still veto the PRO Act should it ever make it to his desk and can cancel any efforts to destroy the right of our citizens to work.

But first, as I expected, I and one other person who contacted our senator about the FEMA trailers sitting idle while people are in tents in western North Carolina and it’s now snowing, and we got back via email a form letter that basically said thanks for your concern and the devastation was unprecedented and he was doing everything possible to help and would leave no stone unturned to fix it. It didn’t say anything about what I told him about. It was a meaningless form letter. It’s like his staff looked at my email and said send him the hurricane letter. He really doesn’t care.

Now something happened today that showed me that Trump really learned from his personnel mistakes from his first term. Mike Rogers was being touted in some circles as the best person for FBI Director. I thought that was terrible because I had seen several articles pointing out that it would be a terrible mistake because he had said several things about Trump that should be disqualifying. Among them he was a J6er. One said he would be like Wray on steroids and gum up the works. Trump announced today that he never even entertained the idea of Rogers. Hooray.

I also saw that Bongino is being considered for head of the Secret Service. That would be an incredible pick up there with Bondi.

His pick for Treasury, Bessent, is an outstanding choice and he is also openly gay which should shut up the nonsense of him wanting to round up all the gays. But it did make me wonder why Rick Grenell hasn’t been nominated for a position since he did an outstanding job last time and is in fact the first openly gay cabinet member ever. Way before Buttigieg! But then I saw he is being considered for a position in Ukraine and that would be great.

Then I saw Sharpton complaining that Trump hadn’t nominated any blacks. Apparently that was before Trump nominated Scott Turner for Secretary of HUD, because he is definitely black and a former NFL Quarterback for the Redskins among other teams and served in his first administration in that department.

Suffice it to say I’m very excited about his picks and hope they can get confirmed quickly.

I thought McConnell would be out of office in January, however, he only stepped down from his Minority Leader position. He still has two years left on corrupt RINO senate term.

Why would you let your nominees be put up for a vote when the Dems control the Senate? After January second the Republicans have a significant majority.

And I don’t know the answers, but I’m glad that Gaetz is out. My first question is, although he resigned from the House can he come back in in January? He was just re-elected by a large margin. So can he demand to be sworn in in January?

My second question is that I just saw that Cocaine Mitch was going to be a no vote to confirm Gaetz. But I don’t think that Trump’s nominations are valid until he actually assumes office and Mitch will be gone then. I don’t know the ins and outs of the nomination process, but can the present senate vote down nominations before Trump even becomes the president? I thought all the confirmation hearings would take place after the inauguration.

Hooray! I just got the person I wanted nominated for AG. She is immensely qualified and will do what needs to be done to drain the swamp in DOJ. And as an aside, I will certainly enjoy watching and listening to her much more than Garland.

Also Casey finally conceded in Pennsylvania!