Mean Girls 3

So much to talk about, but let me start with all those folks who are worried about the "Deep State" and and overbearing government that ignores states rights. I understand the impulse here and frankly, share it to a certain extent. But for those in this bunch who are MAGA supporters, a couple of stories:

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google (owner of YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The Department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing.

Think about that for a second. Or more, if you are non-MAGA.

Secondly, this social media post by President Trump a day or so ago...

"There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!" 

Now, look, you may think voter ID is a peachy idea but is this the path you want the government to take? This is, of course, on the heels of the longtime Presidential lie about a stolen election. That is a lie so thoroughly discredited, I'm amazed he hasn't just quietly shelved it. But, instead, he doubles down. For example, claiming we are the only country that allows mail-in ballots. Actually, 34 countries do including Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, the UK, Australia and others.

The raid on the Fulton County, Georgia elections office was inspired by election deniers in the administration from the Independent Newspaper in the UK...

The criminal investigation into allegations of fraud and the destruction of records was prompted by former Trump campaign attorney Kurt Olsen with support from witnesses who have promoted debunked conspiracy theories about election administration and the outcome of the 2020 race.

While the search warrant was executed in Georgia, the federal prosecutor whose name is on the document is Thomas Albus, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Albus, a Trump appointee who was tapped by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate elections, is among a fleet of newly hired government lawyers who boosted false claims about the 2020 election or were directly involved with litigation to overturn the results.

And of course, the Georgia search produced zilch, other than a couple of fairly common errors, none of which amounted to anything near enough to affect the election.

The lies now are so frankly dumb and numerous, you have to wonder why he persists. $13 trillion in new foreign investment? No, not even close. Brought down Biden inflation? No, it's where it was when you took office. And debt? I know, Republicans are the "eat your peas" party when it comes to fiscal matters. But that is not the party today. From Politico...

The U.S. national debt is on track to reach $64 trillion within a decade as the federal government continues its trend of red-ink balances under President Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress.

The Congressional Budget Office released its marquee report Wednesday on the U.S. fiscal outlook, estimating that the tax and spending package Republicans enacted last summer — along with Trump’s immigration policies — will increase deficits by trillions of dollars over the next decade. That budget gap would essentially cancel out the roughly $3 trillion in deficit reduction Trump’s tariffs are expected to produce.

And again a reminder, those tariff dollars come out of American pockets not foreign ones. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul but we keep lying to Peter about the theft.

Immigration? Yes, the border was too porous during the Biden years, but the brutal tactics we are seeing, including shootings, are not going to help the economy. The Cato Institute is a conservative, essentially libertarian, think tank, and they studied the effects immigrants have on the economy. Instead of feeding at the government teat as MAGA wants to believe, the opposite is actually true.

Every year since 1994, when data collection began, immigrants have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits from the federal, state, and local governments. The fiscal benefits have continued to rise, reaching their highest level ever in 2023.

The fiscal surplus from all immigrants from 1994 to 2023 was $14.5 trillion, compared with a deficit of $48 trillion without immigrants. That means that immigrants cut deficits by nearly a third in real terms over the last three decades.

So, logic says "kick them all out," right? Ask the farmers in the Rio Grande Valley or your local home builder.

The administration this week revoked the so-called "Endangerment Finding." Scientific American explains...

soot-covered

This came after many organizations and eventually states asked the EPA, you know the agency Nixon started, to regulate not just pollution but greenhouse gases.

But President Trump knows better than all those pointy-headed science types and has declared climate change a giant scam. In fact, he accepted another big made-up award from the head of the Peabody Coal Company for giving official permission to dig and burn more coal. You know, the Peabody that John Prine sang about...

I have reported from East Germany before the country was reunited, and the pollution is so thick you can taste it. The soot-covered buildings in East Berlin would take years to clean up, according to West Germany's then Environmental Minister, whom we reporters interviewed. Of course, the soot came from coal.

And not only has the administration encouraged the burning of coal, but it has also decided to end the certification of windmill farms. Why, since wind is essentially free? Again, it's another national policy dictated by personal whim. It all began here...

Trump was angry that the UK built an offshore wind farm that could be seen from his Scottish country club. It's that simple.

Jerry Patterson is a Republican, former Marine and Texas Land Commissioner from 2003 to 2015. He became a believer in renewable energy and helped bring the state to a leadership position in solar and wind. He still publishes daily reports from the misnamed Electric Reliability Council of Texas on where we are getting our juice. Here is the report from today, Feb. 15 as I write this...

Wow, mostly solar and wind. In Texas!. So, of course, we need to substitute coal.

And now we come to the Epstein business.

Attorney General Pam Bondi "testified" in a Senate hearing this week. And the quotation marks are intentional, as she shed absolutely zero light on the so-called investigation. In fact, the hearings were an insult-a-palooza from her prepared book of wisecracks tailored for each Democrat in the room.

For example, she actually called Rep. Jaime Raskin of California a "washed-up, loser lawyer." Just for comparison...

After a performance in the hearings that even some Republicans said was embarrassing, Bondi's Department of Justice issued a letter stating basically, it's all over on Epstein. From Mediaite...

On Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Congress that “all” Epstein-related records required under the Act have now been released and that nothing was withheld for embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity. That claim cannot be independently verified by anyone outside the DOJ. There is no independent audit, no outside review, and no mechanism for confirming it beyond taking the government at its word.

To wit: Congress called for transparency by passing a bipartisan bill demanding the Epstein files get released. Under intense political pressure, President Donald Trump reversed his position and signed it into law. The public has been handed what we are told is roughly half of all pages the DOJ has, and mostly with names of powerful men redacted.

So, kids, that's all you get because we say it is, even though the estimates are that only about 50% have been released. Colby Hall of Mediaite said it plainly, at last, we can say clearly, it's a cover-up.

Given the amount of skepticism this will generate, I can say one thing definitively. We will bomb Iran, or someone. Time to move on, right?

We asked Speaker Mike Johnson, but of course, he hadn't read the letter or heard of Bondi or Trump, so he couldn't possibly comment.