Thursday, March 13, 2025

Democrats Stand for Ukraine but Sit for America

Republicans hold only slim majorities in Congress, particularly in the House.

Midterm elections typically shift control to the party not in the White House. Democrats need only a few more House seats to hinder President Trump’s final two years in office and will seek to impeach him daily until he leaves in January 2029.

Trump’s first month in office has been like a wrecking ball, disastrous for the entrenched ruling class and administrative state. The unavoidable chaos resulting from dismantling a massive bureaucracy, exacerbated by corporate media gaslighting, could tilt enough midterm votes to flip at least one house of Congress to the Democrats.

That’s the likely scenario, assuming Democrats present a compelling and attractive alternative agenda to MAGA and DOGE. Since Trump’s landslide (at least by modern standards) election in November 2024, Democrats have offered American voters nothing but hatred, petulance, and nastiness.

They aim only to obstruct and undermine his administration and supporters, resorting to the same inept and destructive policies that characterized President Joe Biden's four years.

The Democrats’ behavior at Trump’s optimistic and forceful speech before a joint session of Congress last week leads one to conclude that they hate America.

Republicans stood and applauded many times. This was a president who accomplished more in a month than many of his predecessors achieved in years. This was a president who kept his campaign promises and more.

Instead, Democrats sat and sulked. Rep. Al Green's initial churlish behavior resulted in his expulsion from the House chamber. Democrats displayed placards reading “Musk steals” or “false," as if they were at an auction or a sporting event.

They could neither stand nor applaud Trump’s accomplishments, which include closing the border, identifying billions in government waste, fraud, and abuse, and a potential peace deal for Ukraine. Instead, they sat and mumbled, staring at their hands or their phones as Trump honored the families of fallen heroes and those killed by illegal aliens.

They found no joy in a child with brain cancer being named an honorary member of the U.S. Secret Service or in a teenager receiving an acceptance letter to West Point. While these scenes brought tears to many Americans’ eyes, the Democrats merely sat and smirked.

Yet they all “stand for Ukraine,” at least for endless war, not for peace and an end to the death and destruction of millions of young Ukrainians and Russians.

When not sitting and pouting, they dance and shadow-box in cringeworthy fashion, saying, “Choose your fighter.” Sorry, Dems, we chose our fighter last Nov. 5.

What does it mean when Democrats wear their pins and proclaim loudly on social media, “I stand with Ukraine” or “Slava Ukraini”?

Are they planning to provide their own funds to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his wartime efforts? Or do they expect others to contribute their money, thereby supporting “the lavish lifestyles of Ukrainian elites”?

Are they volunteering themselves, their children, or their grandchildren to take up arms in Ukraine as part of the security guarantees that Zelensky and the EU leadership insisted upon? Or do they expect other children to fight in the war? When EU President Ursula von der Leyen was asked if her children were in the military, she laughed and replied, "Nein, nein.“

Regardless of one’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and its origins, what will “Glory to Ukraine” mean in early 2025?

Did Russia invade Ukraine without provocation? Or has the West been provoking Russia since 1990, when U.S. Secretary of State James Baker assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would expand, “not one inch eastward,” if Gorbachev complied with Ronald Reagan’s demand to “tear down that wall”?

Here we are, three years into what seems like an endless war. Trump claimsthat America has spent $350 billion on it, while others suggest a lower figure. Regardless, it remains a significant sum for a country facing $2 trillion annual budget deficits.

What about the lives of the soldiers who have been lost – devastating their wives, children, and families? Who supports them? Certainly not the Democrats. Reports indicate that the death toll includes “one million Russian soldiers and 700,000 Ukrainian troops. “

Corporate media, Democrats, and social media virtue signalers were shocked by the recent Oval Office meeting. But what exactly is their plan to end the war? Or do they truly wish for the war to persist?

It seems they do, as this was a rare moment during Trump’s address when Democrats applauded. As the New York Post reported: “The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense,” Trump lamented during his speech, drawing rare applause from Democrats.

And Democrats desire perpetual conflict. “You want to keep it for another five years,” Trump responded, naming Warren. “Pocahontas says yes.” She nodded in agreement.

Ukrainian President Zelensky concurs. Following his Oval Office confrontation, the sweatshirt-clad former comedian promised that the war’s conclusion is “still very, very far away."

European leaders are also doubling down. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated on X, "Peace in Ukraine is more dangerous than the ongoing war." Elon Musk replied, “They want the forever war. How many more parents with no sons? How many more children with no fathers? By their logic, it never ends.” Bingo.

Paul Simon had it right: “You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan.” The only issue is that there is no plan to end the war after Zelensky slipped of the White House meeting with Trump.

Those complaining about Trump’s approach have yet to present an alternative plan. Should we continue the current strategy, borrowing money from China or printing a few hundred billion more dollars for Ukraine, half of which may go unaccounted for, as Zelensky claimed? And will there be another million young men killed in battle, devastating even more families?

Does Zelensky seek an end to the war? He had a favorable deal that he agreed to before his confrontation in the Oval Office, where the televised meeting primarily served as a ceremony. U.S. mineral rights means that American workers on the ground in Ukraine would act as a deterrent to Russian aggression, effectively serving as a “security guarantee“ without involving U.S. troops.

What happened to “make love, not war” and “give peace a chance, " chanted by the 1960s hippies who are now in senior U.S. leadership positions, criticizing Trump, promoting war, and “standing with Ukraine”? I thought Democrats were anti-war as they had been since Vietnam.

Despite early predictions of Ukraine’s victory, the war continues. Trump campaigned on the promise to end the conflict and is undoubtedly making efforts. What actions did his predecessor take or neglect?

Grok answered: “Biden did speak to Putin during the lead-up to the Ukraine war, but there is no confirmed direct communication between them after the invasion began, based on available public records as of March 4, 2025.”

Democrats lack a coherent plan. They applaud for Ukraine, but when it comes to America, they sit on their hands. If they think that opposing America is a successful campaign strategy for the midterm elections, let them see how that works out.



X22, And we Know, and more- March 13

 



Fact check: Trump falsely claims Canada is ‘one of the highest tariffing nations’

President Donald Trump added Tuesday to his rapidly growing list of false claims about Canada, wrongly asserting on social media that Canada is “ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.”

Canada is a low-tariff country compared to most others. In fact, figures published by the World Bank show Canada had a lower average tariff rate (1.37%) than the US (1.49%) in 2022, the most recent year for which the data is available, weighted for how much of various products each country imported. Of 137 countries for which the World Bank published these trade-weighted 2022 tariff averages, Canada was 102nd from the top.

Bermuda topped the list at 29.52%. Seventeen additional countries, a dozen of them in Africa, were above 12%. To cite an assortment of other countries with tariffs higher than Canada: India was at 11.46%; South Korea was at 8.63%; Brazil was at 7.44%; Mexico was at 4.75%; China was at 3.09%; the United Kingdom was at 3.07%; and Japan was at 1.64%.

There are various ways to assess a country’s overall tariff picture, but Canada is also nowhere near the top when you use other standard calculation methods. Canada also had a lower 2022 tariff rate (1.83%) than the US (2.72%) in a simple-average comparison that doesn’t factor in trade volumes, the World Bank data show.

Trump’s claim about Canada is “nonsense,” said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, who discussed the World Bank figures in a February article.

Canada did this month impose new tariffs on imports from the US in response to Trump’s own new tariffs on imports from Canada. Two days after Trump’s tariffs took effect, he suspended them, until April 2, on Canadian imports covered by his US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Canada’s dairy tariffs are an exception, not the norm — and not actually hitting any US products

As he has before, Trump pointed in the Tuesday social media post to one set of notably high Canadian tariffs — dairy duties exceeding 250% on some products — as a prime example of Canada’s supposedly unfair trade practices. But he again failed to mention that these Canadian dairy tariffs only kick in after the US has hit a certain, Trump-negotiated quantity of zero-tariff sales to Canada. The US is not currently filling its zero-tariff sales quota in any category of dairy product, so the tariffs aren’t being applied.

Trump also did not acknowledge that Canada’s “supply management” protectionism over its dairy and poultry industries is the exception, not the norm. “The overwhelming proportion” of US trade with Canada has for decades been tariff-free for both countries, noted Dartmouth College economics professor Douglas Irwin; “Canada does not apply tariffs on most US goods.” The US Department of Agriculture itself points out that “almost all” US agricultural exports to Canada faced zero tariffs or quotas under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that took effect in 1994 and continue to face zero tariffs or quotas under the USMCA that modified NAFTA in 2020.

Daniel Schwanen, senior vice president at the C.D. Howe Institute think tank in Canada, said Trump’s claim about Canada being a high-tariff country has “a grain or an element of truth” given Canada’s hefty dairy and poultry tariffs on imports above the tariff-free quota thresholds — but Schwanen said Trump’s claim is still “wrong as a general statement.”

“It would be really unfortunate if people got the impression that Canada is in general a high-tariff country, especially vis-à-vis American products. That’s not the case. It is the case with respect to, really, a sliver of trade,” Schwanen said in a Tuesday interview.

Trump made the false claim in a social media post in which he said he was doubling, to 50%, his tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in response to the Canadian province of Ontario announcing a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to three US states (which Ontario’s premier said later Tuesday he was suspending, prompting Trump to abandon his own retaliation plan).

Trump also threatened in the post to impose car tariffs “which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada doesn’t remove “egregious, long time Tariffs.” And he repeated his call for Canada to become the 51st US state, a notion overwhelmingly rejected by Canadians.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/12/politics/fact-check-trump-canada-highest-tariffing-nations/index.html



Trump Makes His Enemies Insane


Say what you will about Donald Trump, nobody can argue that he doesn’t possess an amazing superpower. Actually, he has several superpowers, but his most powerful may be the ability to convince his opponents to defend the least popular possible positions just because he supports them. Not just contrary positions, not just positions that reasonable people can disagree with, but insanely unpopular positions that all normal people look at and are repelled by. There’s not a garbage hill they won’t choose to die on. It’s an incredibly useful superpower to have.

Of course, the most recent one is the 80/20 polling proposition against men pretending to be women and being allowed into women’s intimate spaces to steal their athletic achievements. What lunatic would possibly take the position that it’s OK for some dude with the whole sausage store swinging to walk into your daughter’s locker room and expect to be called Martha? Well, it’s not just one lunatic. It’s a whole party of lunatics. This is a sacred Democrat belief, maybe its most sacred belief. Just the other day, every single Democrat senator voted to continue this nonsense. But in the real world, eight out of 10 normal people understand that it’s insane, and the other 20%, probably half of them, don’t agree with the majority because they can’t wrap their minds around the fact that it’s actually happening.

Of course, Trump opposes it, and of course, he rubbed it in their faces at that glorious not-State of the Union address the other night. Naturally, the Democrats highlighted their embrace of this bizarre, creepy fringe belief system right in front of 36 million Americans. It’s no wonder that 76% of the people who watched the thing supported the president. Politically, it’s just insane to draw the battle lines about weirdos and perverts, but the Democrats do it. It kind of tells you what their main constituency is – weirdos and perverts and the SSRI-ridden, Chardonnay wine Munchhausen Mommies that love them. 

Embracing it makes absolutely no sense politically unless their entire focus is maintaining their psychotic leftist activist base. And, of course, their entire focus is maintaining their psychotic leftist activist base. You might think they would reach out in a systematic way to normal people, and some have tried. Gavin Newsom, the guy whose unalloyed support for kiddie castration and against penis-free female environments helped make California the sexual confusion capital of America, recently went on with Charlie Kirk and hinted that, well, you know, maybe it’s kinda unfair to let some hairy ape pretending to be a ballerina win the gold medal in a girl track meet. Don’t get the idea that he is actually going to do anything about it. California is still a gender freak state where every pervert is a king, and every normal person is liable to be leered at in the locker room – and, in his trash state, if you complain that some dude in a skirt is drooling over you while you slip on your panties, you’re a hate criminal. Other Democrats have realized that this is electoral cyanide, and they’ve tried to thread the needle by suggesting that maybe local governments should decide whether the perverts rule or not. They don’t think that about anything else, like abortion, just this, and they don’t really think it. If they get federal power back, you can be sure that the full force of law will come down in support of weirdo transvestites getting a free pass at exposing themselves to little girls.

Trump is somehow able to maneuver them into being all for such loathsome demographics as federal workers. Yeah, Americans feel sorry for the kind of person who tells them they can’t sign their VA form in blue ink. Not a lotta sympathy there. And Americans seem to like the idea of cutting government waste. Sure, the Democrats insist that we’re about to launch a Third World genocide by refusing to fully fund Ecuadorian transgender mime troupes, but normal people look at that and hear that it’s being cut, and they think it’s a good thing. This is because it is, objectively, a good thing. To support this stuff is, objectively, an insane thing. 

Now, it’s not crazy in the sense that doing so does support the Democrat position that all normality and civilization must be overthrown in favor of the bizarre, creepy freak show utopia that they hope to impose upon us. It’s insane because it’s electoral poison. Look at what happened to Kamala Harris when she got up there and had to try and tap dance about subsidizing illegal alien transsexual surgeries. It’s hard to explain this sort of stuff, and it should be hard because this sort of stuff is stupid and horrific. A few Democrats understand that this stuff repels normal people. That’s their problem. And that’s Trump’s edge.

What’s the latest? Some Third World Muslim scumbag terrorist-lover who somehow got into our country and somehow got into one of our allegedly prestigious schools is using that as a base to demand the murder of Jews and everybody else. Remember – they don’t just want to stop killing all the Jews. They want to kill you and me, too. They will tell you that if you listen, and thanks to the fact that we have broken the gatekeeping model of the regime media, conservative media, and social media can now tell you. You can go read what this scumbag’s positions are. He wants October 7 all over the world. That means you and your kids and your sons and your daughters are being raped and murdered on videotape for the delight of Third World semi-humans. Yeah, we’re totally morally obligated to let this creature onto our soil.

It’s been said before: The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Now, the reasonable position among Americans is that this kind of walking, talking pile of refried goat excrement shouldn’t be anywhere near our country. It’s not a matter of free speech. You don’t get to come here and start setting up your garbage revolution. Do the Democrats agree with that view? No. They’re perfectly happy to let the genocidal jihadi to do his thing. In this monster, they have finally found some “free speech” they’re concerned with protecting. They were never concerned with free speech on campus when it was conservatives trying to speak freely. They were never concerned when the federal government launched a pogrom against normal Americans who went to protest a bogus election and dared to walk through the Capitol that they own. Even now, Democrats are positively gleeful that Elon Musk’s participation in our government is being met by leftist-funded terrorists burning down Tesla stores. But this Hamas-sucking mutant who literally wants to murder you and your entire family? No, he’s got to be here. He’s got to get a free megaphone. He has every right to come here and destroy our country and kill your kids. Because of reasons and shut up, fascist.

That’s the Democrat position. But why do they hold such a manifestly politically unpopular position? Because that’s what the black, shriveled heart of the Democrat Party believes. And also because Donald Trump feels differently. One thing is for certain – Donald Trump’s superpower is in full effect, and right now, he’s laughing.




Returning to an Earlier American Identity


Except for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, immigration laws were not restrictive until the 1920s. Because of the incredible growth of manufacturing during the last third of the 19th century, millions of people from Europe (but also other parts of the world) were welcomed as workers into the USA with few restrictions in the decades 1880-1920. In 1880, the population of the USA was approximately 50 million, and in 1920, the population was 106 million. So, during that 40 year period, our population grew by 56 million, which included an incredible 25 million immigrants plus their children and grandchildren. Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, which included the words, “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” was added to the Statue of Liberty in 1903.

As migrants from Europe moved into jobs in the East, many in the East continued to move westward. With the Westward movement during the 19th century, there were great opportunities for vast numbers of people to become landowners, but in the new, industrialized sectors of the East, there were many fewer opportunities to become managers and capitalist owners. In the agricultural sector, we had large landowners and small landowners, large cattle ranches and small cattle ranches. However, within the ranch subculture, we had cowboys who took care of the horses and cattle but did not own the land or the animals. The Westward movement was less stratified than the industrialized East.

Many of the millions of immigrants became farmers, but the lion’s share became wage employees of the factories that were being built in the eastern part of the U.S. “If the third generation (the grandchildren of immigrants) are included, then more than two-thirds of workers in the manufacturing sector were of recent immigrant stock.”

The manufacturing sector in the late 19th century was populated with many leftist-minded immigrants. Many arrived believing that they, as workers, were in a class struggle with an elite class (the nobility) that had enjoyed rights and powers that they had been excluded from for centuries. The new immigrants did not connect with that sense of individualism that had marked our culture until 1880.

The ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – which was an ideal for free individuals -- began to succumb to socialist groupthink, and the idea that man is first and foremost a social animal and that his or her membership in society (understand “society” to imply “class”) reveals his or her true commitments and identity.

John Dewey with his prodigious writings and his socialistic commitments became the leader who revamped our education system beginning in the late 1890s and continuing on into the 1920s and up to this very day. Classical and Christian educational goals were sacrificed in the interest of producing cooperative workers for the future, people who were not individualistic in outlook, but collectivistic.

This thrust in the direction of collectivism and expansion of federal power began during the administration of Pres. Woodrow Wilson. Wilson supported the creation of a Federal Reserve Bank to manipulate our monetary policy and a federal income tax to expand the administrative authority of the federal government. He clearly believed that an enlarged federal government was needed to control financial excesses of the wealthiest citizens albeit in a way that would, at the same time, be acceptable to those wealthiest citizens. These moves were high-level finesses to placate high-income individuals while, for the first time, introducing expanded federal controls over the financial upper class. In short, if it looks like socialism and smells like socialism, then it is [fill in the blank].

With Woodrow Wilson’s support for the Federal Reserve and the income tax, the Republicans understood that we were moving in the wrong direction and that there was a link between the vast tide of immigration for forty years and the legislation being supported by the Dems as well as the fact that a socialist, Eugene Debs, ran for President three times by1920.

New immigration laws were passed in the 1920s whereby immigration was limited to 2% of a nationality that was in the USA as of the 1890 census. The Congress, controlled by Republicans, realized that this flood of immigration was producing a widespread acceptance of a wrongheaded and un-American understanding of the body politic.

Despite the Federal Reserve, which was created to prevent the regular depressions brought on by banking collapses in the 19th century, our banking system collapsed in 1930. The New Deal was initiated after FDR was elected President in 1932. He greatly expanded the role of the federal government with a long list of created “alphabet agencies” some of which exist to this day. Nevertheless, high unemployment continued until we began ramping up our military readiness as World War II loomed on the horizon.

But during this Rooseveltian second phase of leftist commitment (Wilson was the first phase), we see that certain leftist professors in Germany, called the Frankfurt School, emigrated to the USA during the 1930s. They were Marxists who opposed the political and economic philosophy and dictates of Hitler whose “fascism” was just as totalitarian as the governance envisioned by the communists. They included such luminaries as Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Eric Fromm, and Theodore Adorno. The arrival of these brilliant communists ushered in the infection of American education with communist ideas and ideals.

Since that time higher education in the USA has increasingly bought into the Frankfurt School vision where it now is dominant in many of our most prestigious schools. Law and order now exists to protect the rights and legitimacy of the intellectual Left. Bourgeois capitalism allied and aligned with and supported by Judeo-Christian morality is now considered out-of-date and even wretchedly elitist by many of our top thinkers. This is the essence of why they despise -- yes, have utter contempt for -- Trump and his followers.

Trump represents a return to pre-Wilsonian ideals of individualism and bourgeois initiative, a pro-life and Judeo-Christian world where the unborn, considered as an individual, also has rights, especially the right to life. It is a relational world where the individual is defined by his or her gifts and behavior, not by his or her group identity.

Identity politics is replaced by real identity based on the search for self, not on the search to be in the so-called right group that will express who I am. Pres. Trump and his supporters numbering close to 80 million persons are rejecting the post-Deweyan and post-Frankfurt School mindset with a more God-centered and individualistic mindset. Family values as traditionally understood are still in jeopardy, but may see a renaissance. This return is needed and will be refreshing.



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If The United States Doesn’t Build More Ships, China Will Rule The Waves

To ensure economic and national security, 
America needs more ships.



During his recent address to Congress, President Trump announced the creation of a new Office of Shipbuilding within the White House, aiming to revive America’s once-thriving shipbuilding industry. This renewed focus on shipbuilding is not just timely; it is essential. The United States has fallen behind China in both commercial and military shipbuilding, putting our economic and national security at risk.

History shows no nation can achieve world-power status without also being a naval power. The United States has a storied legacy of maritime dominance. At the conclusion of World War II, the United States commanded the world’s most powerful navy and dominated maritime commerce, with its commercial marine fleet representing an astounding 50 percent of global cargo shipping capacity. More than one million Americans worked at American shipyards.

Unfortunately, decades of globalization and changing priorities from successive administrations have led to the alarming decline of the U.S. commercial shipping industry, which now accounts “for less than 1% of the world fleet.” While the U.S. Navy remains a formidable force, its fleet size is on a concerning trajectory of “managed decline.” Under the previous Biden administration, the U.S. Navy’s 2023 budget revealed intentions to acquire only nine new ships while decommissioning 24, resulting in a projected fleet of just 280 ships by 2027.

Meanwhile, for more than two decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has provided substantial subsidies to its shipping and shipbuilding industries, establishing a strong presence in the global commercial shipping market and commanding a fleet of more than 5,500 oceangoing merchant vessels actively engaged in international trade. If a military conflict were to arise between the United States and China, and China’s merchant vessels ceased operations, it could lead to significant disruptions in the flow of essential goods and materials, resulting in catastrophic consequences for the global economy. Moreover, China can quickly convert this extensive commercial fleet into a powerful naval force, enhancing its military strength.

Equally alarming is China’s commanding lead in shipbuilding. The Wall Street Journal reports that “China is the world’s biggest producer of containerships. Almost 29% of vessels in service today when measured by container capacity were made in China. … Chinese shipyards account for about 70% of new containership capacity on order.” A U.S. Naval Intelligence analysis shows Chinese shipbuilding capacity is more than 232 times greater than that of the United States.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has leveraged the nation’s commercial ship-building capacity to expand its naval fleet quickly. During a Senate hearing last year, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, noted that “numerically, they [China] now have a larger Navy, roughly 370 ships to our 291 ships. Last year, they added 30 ships to their fleet; 15 were large surface combatants including cruisers, destroyers and another aircraft carrier. We added two.” He concluded that “China’s ‘rapid’ naval buildup has highlighted our own shipbuilding deficiencies.”

The speed of China’s warship building is simply astounding, with the Chinese completing construction runs for many naval warship classes in one to three years.  China is projected to have more than 400 ships and submarines in its fleet by 2030. The PLA Navy is not only growing the number of warships but also constructing more advanced ones. For instance, China has launched two aircraft carriers since 2017, with a third currently undergoing sea trials.

In addition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is strategically leveraging its dominance in commercial shipping to pave ways for its navy’s presence worldwide. Chinese and Hong Kong-based firms now control or hold significant stakes in 95 foreign ports.

This extensive network of Chinese-controlled ports raises serious national security concerns, as naval ships rely on commercial ports for refueling, resupplying, and providing rest for their sailors. According to The Wall Street Journal, gaining access to facilities operated by Chinese companies can make it “easier, cheaper and more efficient [for China’s navy] to sustain fleets abroad.”

With its growing naval strength, the CCP is already pursuing ambitious geopolitical goals. In the South China Sea, PLA warships and coast guard vessels are routinely harassing Philippine fishing boats and maritime patrols, obstructing commercial activities, and undermining the sovereignty of the Philippines.

Last month, the PLA Navy conducted a surprising live-fire naval drill in waters between Australia and New Zealand, failing to notify either nation in advance. This disregard was so severe that the Australian government learned about the drill from a commercial pilot, leading to the diversion of numerous commercial flights in the area.

Such actions illustrate the Chinese Communist Party’s ambition to assert itself as a global powerhouse by flouting established international laws and norms. Since Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines are key U.S. allies, the PLA’s provocative maneuvers not only threaten regional stability but also serve as a direct challenge to U.S. interests and influence.

In the United States, awareness of the dangers posed by China’s expanding naval capabilities amid America’s troubling “managed decline” is finally growing. In light of this, the Trump administration is taking significant steps to bolster the American shipbuilding industry.

Besides its announcement of a White House shipbuilding office, the Trump administration is reportedly working on an executive order to enhance investment in shipbuilding, including initiatives that would establish “maritime opportunity zones” and a “maritime security trust fund.” The executive order suggests imposing fees on Chinese ships and cranes at U.S. ports, with revenues earmarked for domestic maritime enhancements. In addition, some recommend the administration work closely with allies such as South Korea and Japan, both of which have excellent shipbuilding and maintenance capacity.

The Trump administration’s focus on reviving the American shipbuilding industry is timely. To ensure economic and national security, America needs more ships.



Democrat Prospects for 2026 Have Taken a Very Dark Turn


Bonchie reporting for RedState 

Midterms are rarely kind to the party in power, and that's given the Democratic Party new hope as we approach another election season in 2026. But a slew of largely unexpected retirements in the Senate has breathed new life into Republican prospects of not just keeping the chamber, but expanding its majority. 

As RedState reported, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) announced on Wednesday morning that she will not be seeking reelection. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) recently made the same announcement.


Big Blow to Democrats As Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Announces She's Not Running Again, and Why That's Good News for Republicans


At least two of those three seats lean Democrat according to prognosticators like Cook Political, and you could argue Michigan would be a tough haul in an off-year election as well for Republicans. That's where the power of incumbency comes in. As a political party that doesn't hold a seat, you would almost always rather fight over an open seat rather than face an incumbent (unless they are mired in a major scandal). 

So those three races just got a lot more winnable on paper, and that's important because elections tend to hinge on their own viability because of fundraising. When a seat looks like a long shot, less donor money comes in which in turn makes the seat even more of a long shot. But if things look more possible, then the war chests grow and the probability of winning goes up. 

You can also get better candidates to run. For example, after Shaheen's announcement, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu immediately indicated he was thinking about running. And while he's far from a fan favorite among the broader Republican electorate, he's exactly the kind of person who can beat a Democrat in that state. Likewise, primary voters should think carefully about who they choose in Michigan and Minnesota as well. Trump is not going to be on the ballot so they have to ask themselves whether they want to go with 2022's failed senate candidate strategy (Mehmet Oz, Hershel Walker, etc.) or something more tailored to each state. 

The biggest problem for Democrats, though, is that even if they win the three states discussed above, they are still probably cooked. Georgia, which shifted red again in 2024, will see Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) defending his seat. Popular Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) is term-limited as governor, and if he ends up the Republican senate nominee, I'd suggest it's lights out for Ossoff. 

Then there's the fact that Democrats just don't have many (if any) actual pickup opportunities. Are they going to win in Kentucky? Indiana? Florida? Ohio? Maybe you could argue North Carolina is in play depending on who the nominee is, but probably not. So with the GOP having 53 seats, you'd need a collapse of historic proportions for Republicans to lose the Senate. That's great news for the current administration, which needs partners in Congress to get things done. 

Of course, if 2022 taught us anything, it's to never count your chickens before they hatch. We all thought a red wave was coming and it ended up a red trickle, with a tiny House majority and actually losing a Senate seat. With that said, the 2026 map is such a horror show for Democrats that it's hard to see how where they can find a net gain of four seats (a 50-50 tie means Vice President JD Vance is the tiebreaker). That's why Republicans padding the score in 2024 and getting to 53 seats was so important. Chuck Schumer should probably get used to being the Senate minority leader.



Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Outlines Global Impact and Response from USA Tariff Hammer


Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on CBS News to outline how the MAGAnomic tariff program immediately creates positive outcomes when President Trump identifies the specific targets.

As Lutnick appropriately notes, the EU has received one-way tariff benefit since the creation of the Marshal Plan in 1945.  President Trump is on track to finally end this exfiltration of American wealth.  Lutnick cuts through the nonsense and delivers a very non-pretending reality as he outlines how Canada doesn’t stop fentanyl, and Mexico doesn’t stop migration caravans.

This is an excellent explanatory outline of how President Trump paints the target, then Commerce Secretary Lutnick supports the targeting, and how foreign nations immediately respond to change their approach. WATCH:



As we notice today, for the first time since last year the Consumer Price Index now shows inflation slowing rapidly [CPI DATA HERE] as basic essential prices on energy and gasoline are dropping quickly and all downstream products start dropping in sequence.

Here is our current status after one month: – mortgage rates are down – egg prices are down – gas prices are down – overall inflation dropping – illegal immigration stopped at the border – wages going up – foreign aid shut down – woke initiatives being removed – massive manufacturing investments ongoing.

Hey, it’s winning folks, and it has only just begun.  Lutnick is absolutely correct.



Corporate Media Try To Convince Americans That Inflation Progress Under Trump Is Temporary


The media tried convincing Americans that inflation was good under Biden.



President Donald Trump’s first full month in office was marked by one of the lowest consumer price index increases and the lowest level of core consumer prices Americans have experienced over the last four record-breaking years.

The White House celebrated the news as a sign that “inflation is declining and the economy is moving in the right direction under President Trump.”

“As he successfully did in his first term, President Trump is driving down costs through massive deregulation and energy dominance. The entire Trump Administration will continue to focus on fixing the economic and inflation nightmare created by the Biden-Harris Administration to unlock the Golden Age of America,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Despite the significant inflation data shift, corporate media are attempting to sow doubt that Trump’s “America First” policies will yield the economic results his constituents desire.

Outlets acknowledged that February’s price hikes measured much “lower than expected,” but refused to give up on their attempts to sabotage the second Trump administration’s pledge to rescue and repair the economy. Some corporate media, such as CNN, couched their headlines with caveats about how “Trump’s tariff plans and trade war” were proof that economic “progress may be short lived.”

“U.S. Inflation Shows Improvement Amid Worries About Tariffs and Trade War,” one New York Times headline stated.

“Inflation eased in February, but trade war threatens higher prices,” The Washington Post declared.

“Inflation cools for now, but Trump tariffs could make relief fleeting,” Axios remarked.

“Inflation cooled in February, but economists say Trump’s tariffs haven’t had time to take effect,” Fortune claimed.

It is true that tariffs are an imperfect solution for the nation’s economic woes, but they are not the only measure that could influence the health of the economy moving forward. Already, Americans under Trump are seeing improvement in price cuts to popular expenses such as eggs and gasoline, which fell 3.1 percent since last February.

Much to corporate media’s chagrin, the nation is also reaping the benefits of “steady” job growth, which they pretended was happening under the previous administration using data falsely inflated by the Democrat regime.

Unfortunately for Americans, whose trust in the propaganda press is already at an all-time low, the corporate media’s attempts to twist economic reports is nothing new.

Democrats and their newsroom allies knew the economy was voters’ top priority heading into the 2024 election, which is why they worked so hard to whitewash the Biden administration’s role in destroying it. They even tried to deny the U.S. hit a Biden-induced recession before trying to sell it to struggling Americans as “good for you financially.”

Lies and deception, nor help from economic “experts,” who consistently projected smaller hikes than what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated, however, could contain Democrats’ CPI crisis.

Shortly before Trump took office, those same propaganda press and inflation afficionados claimed the Republican was set to inherit and then promptly ruin a “strong” and “healthy” economy with his tariff plans.

A few months into Trump’s second tenure, however, the economy has yet to see that “fresh spike in inflation” they promised would come. Instead, outlets complicit in the Biden administration’s big economic coverup are now forced to admit what Americans realized long before the 2024 election: Under Trump, inflation is taking and will likely continue to take a “step in the right direction.”