IT’S HARD TO COMPLAIN AFTER SO MANY GREAT PICKS, BUT… SHE’S AWFUL: Trump‘s Shockingly Awful Pick for Labor Secretary.
February 18, 2025
CHANGE: NYSE Chicago Moving To Dallas. “Chalk up another case of another company in a failing high tax, high regulation, blue-run locale getting the hell out why the getting is good and moving to Texas.”
TIME FOR ‘SPENDING DECISION TREE TRANSPARENCY:’ The first great landmark in proving transparency is Big Government’s worst enemy was the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA) in 1966. The second was the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) of 2006.
The third should be, according to my latest PJ Media column, creation by Congress and President Donald Trump of web site that enables any citizen with access to the Internet to use the Spending Decision Tree Transparency (SDTT) system that makes public the names, titles and actions of every decision-maker in a series of decisions that results in federal tax dollars being spent.
Yes, it would require a great deal of creative thinking and insight into how government spending decisions are made. But I recall too well not that long ago when the “experts” said there was no way to put all federal spending on the Internet. They were wrong and today we have USASpending.gov, as mandated by FFATA. Why not Spending Decision Tree Transparency.gov?
READER FAVORITE: REDTIGER Dash Cam Front Rear. #CommissionEarned
THEY CHOSE IT BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH IT:
I want to note that this didn't have to happen. The destruction of trust in institutions and authority that came out of Covid was a choice made by people in power.
They were warned repeatedly and they chose this collapse. https://t.co/kXq1VRNj39
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) February 18, 2025
If my sons ever start to drift leftward — unlikely as that seems — I’ll remind them of the year the government stole from their childhoods.
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN: If You’re a Fan, Catch It on the Big Screen.
My latest, over at Ed Driscoll.com.
METAPHOR ALERT:
NEW: Trump hater and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill's pants appear to drop to his knees while he was presenting an award at the BAFTAs.
The 73-year-old could be seen giving his speech when his voice got shaky and he suddenly started grabbing at his pants.
Someone sitting in the… pic.twitter.com/BeXG5RycqH
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 18, 2025
WATCH: Shocking Video of Toronto Plane Crash Released.
As PJ Media previously reported, there was another commercial airline crash on Monday, when Delta flight DL4819, an Endeavor Air Bombardier CRJ900, crashed during landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Fortunately, all 80 individuals on board survived this harrowing episode, though 18 suffered injuries, with some requiring hospitalization. The crash on the snow-covered runway caused the plane to flip upside down and lose both wings.
NBC “News” knows exactly who to blame for the crash in, err, Canada: NBC News Aviation ‘Expert’ Blames Toronto Plane Crash on… Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Of course, NBC isn’t the only news group with a case of Toronto, err, Trump Derangement Syndrome:
Politico reporter claiming, without evidence, that planes are crashing because of Doanld Trump.
This is the world of BlueSky that Brian Stelter, Oliver Darcy, etc. don't have a problem with. Why? Because they believe it's reality. https://t.co/RekdMJQVEZ
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 18, 2025
C’mon guys — despite President Trump’s breakneck pace to kick off his second term, it’s not quite yet the 51st state.
OUT TODAY: From Tom Cotton, Seven Things You Can’t Say About China. #CommissisonEarned
JONATHAN TURLEY: Critics Prove Vance’s Point on the Threat of the Anti-Free Speech Movement.
Brennan could not have picked a better country to utterly destroy the point that she was trying to make in favor of limits on free speech.
Germany continued to censor and criminalize speech after World War II, targeting the neo-Nazi movement and other prohibited viewpoints.
Authorities charged citizens for everything from wine labels to ringtones with banned content. The government has sought to force figures like X owner Elon Musk to censor Americans and others to combat anything that it deems “fake news” or “disinformation.”
Of course, Germany’s massive censorship effort has done little to deter the thriving neo-Nazi movement. What it has done is chill the speech of ordinary citizens. One poll of German citizens found that only 18% of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. Only 17% felt free to express themselves on the internet.
Other nations joined in the harrumphs with equally disingenuous statements, including the United Kingdom. British diplomats expressed shock despite their systemic suppression of free speech, including arresting citizens for simply praying to themselves near abortion clinics.
The British have doubled down on censorship with sweeping new laws. Hundreds have been arrested recently for speech crimes like spreading “fake news” or disinformation that could lead to “non-trivial psychological or physical harm.”
Previously, British citizens were arrested for criticizing religious groups or opposing homosexuality or immigration. In one case, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime.
This doesn’t look much like the Western Europe that brave men stood watch at the Fulda Gap to defend.
THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Production Hell — It Ends With Us (Video).
STACY MCCAIN is currently at the Allegheny County Courthouse for the arraignment hearing of the “Zizian” Transgender cult terrorists. He texts: “‘Ziz’ Lakota ordered held without bond; same for suspect Daniel Blank. 3rd suspect, Zajiko, will be heard in a while. They’re going in alphabetical order.”
UPDATE: He has a full report posted now.
PLAY THE “LONE RANGER” MUSIC: Sorry Libs, Voters Love How Fast Trump Is Moving.
SEE BS: Clown Margaret Brennan Claims Free Speech Caused The Holocaust.
J.D. Vance, who tangled with Margaret Brennan during the vice presidential debate, and already helped create a meme regarding an interview he had with her not that long ago, weighed in on Brennan’s ignorance via X.
This is a crazy exchange.
Does the media really think the holocaust was caused by free speech? https://t.co/EBUKx75Wfm
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 16, 2025
Given the track record of the media after October 7th, I’d say that Vance is probably correct. But Margaret Brennan is simply parroting in what is called the “Weimar fallacy.” The idea that the post-World War I Weimar Republic of Germany collapsed due to free speech – allowing the Holocaust to take place – is just historically wrong, especially when it came to censoring the Nazi Party.
Nazi publications were frequently banned during the Weimar years. The Nazi party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, was temporarily suspended many times for anti-Semitic excesses in the early 1920s. After Hitler’s failed coup attempt in 1923 both the Nazi party and its newspaper were banned until 1925. Most German states also banned him from speaking publicly between 1925 and 1927. But in retrospect Hitler concluded that on balance the ban was a benefit as it boosted his fame and popularity.
Two other newspapers, Joseph Goebbels’ Der Angriff (the attack) and Julian Streicher’s virulently anti-Semitic Der Stürmer (the striker) were also subject to what today would be called anti hate speech laws. The former had Bernhard Weiss, the Jewish vice president of the Berlin police force, as one of its favourite targets. But his attempts at legal action helped Goebbels portray the paper as the victim of a Jewish conspiracy to enslave the German people.
The censorship ended up making Adolf Hitler a “political martyr” – and paved the way for his election in 1933.
Former ACLU President and @TheFIREorg Senior Fellow on the “Weimar fallacy.”
Nadine’s father was a Holocaust survivor.pic.twitter.com/atmo8qPjTR
— Nico Perrino (@NicoPerrino) February 16, 2025
And once the Nazis came to power, there was no more pretense at “freedom of speech.”
Indeed. As Ezra Levant wrote in 2012: Censoring Hitler — and the past.
If every Jew in Europe had a firearm, do you think Hitler could have killed six million of them so easily?
He might still have been able to kill them. But not without a fight. Not like lambs to the slaughter.
Lucky for Hitler, the Jews in Germany had been disarmed by do-gooders long before he took power. It actually was part of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War.
These same liberals brought in censorship laws, too — under which Hitler himself was prosecuted.
So when Hitler took power in 1933, much of his work was done for him — civil liberties had already been limited, by the “good guys.”
According to the great journalist and historian George Jonas, when Hitler started limiting personal freedom, a left-wing legislator stood up in the Reichstag to complain about it.
And here’s what Hitler said: “Late you come, but still you come. You should have recognized the value of criticism during the years we were in opposition (when) our press was forbidden, our meetings were forbidden, and we were forbidden to speak for years on end.”
It’s a terrifying reminder that laws that destroy our civil liberties are dangerous no matter who passes them, and no matter what good intentions accompanied them.
The lesson is, don’t let the government take away your rights.
At the start of President Trump’s first term, some of the “#resistance” left had flashbacks to the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany: Trump win sprouts ‘white roses’ in spirit of anti-Nazi youth.
Analogies between Adolf Hitler’s regime and the impending presidency of Donald Trump were made during an exhibition on Nazi Germany’s youth resistance movement on Tuesday night.
Hosted by Hebrew College, the exhibition focuses on the clandestine student publishers of six anti-Nazi leaflets that were distributed throughout Germany. Apart from several botched attempts on Hitler’s life, the self-labelled “White Rose” group’s activities are recalled as the most daring anti-regime efforts undertaken in Nazi Germany.
Although the exhibition in New England was planned several months ago, widespread emotional unrest following Trump’s election victory made Tuesday’s opening event particularly poignant, said organizers.
“Many, if not most people under pressure, do not stand up,” said Germany’s consul-general to New England, Dr. Ralf Horlemann.
In his remarks, Horlemann paid homage to Sophie Scholl, who along with brother Hans Scholl are most closely associated with the White Rose group. At 21-years-old, Scholl was sent to the guillotine for her role in publishing two of the leaflets.
That doesn’t sound like a nation with an excess of free speech to me. Incidentally, this is all basic History 101 stuff; is Brennan deliberately distorting past world events, or did CBS actually put someone on air who doesn’t know the history of WWII?
Or as Mark Steyn asks, “Too Stupid Even for CBS News?” “Late you come, but still you come. I did not think it was possible to despise the ‘mainstream’ media more than I already did. In a society thoroughly moronized by Brain-Dead Brennan and her ilk, Hitler is the sole remaining historical figure anybody’s heard of. And they can’t even get that right. ‘Weaponising’ free speech? What does that even mean? In Germany, tweets get you gaoled but rape is just part of your ‘cultural tradition’. And CBS News knows which side it’s on.”
NEVER TRUST A “FEMINIST MAN:” Ex-Argentine President Charged With Beating First Lady While in Office: Alberto Fernández, who called himself the country’s first feminist leader, allegedly battered his partner for years.
The charges, made public Monday after a seven-month investigation by Judge Julián Ercolini, charged Fernández with aggravated serious assault as part of gender-based violence, several counts of aggravated minor assault and coercive threats.
Fernández and his lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a recent court appearance, Fernández said, “If anyone in the relationship was assaulted, it was me. If anyone had to endure insults and mistreatment, it was me.”
The case, which Yáñez has discussed publicly, has led to an uproar in Argentina, with both opponents of Fernández and his onetime allies in the leftist Peronist movement calling the case horrific.
As president, Fernández called himself the “first feminist” of Argentina and created the Ministry of Women to crack down on batterers.
The more they talk, the worse they are.
I HAD BEEN ASSURED HE WAS THE FUTURE OF THE PARTY: Some Dems already turning on Hogg two weeks into DNC vice chair gig.
Hogg has already ruffled some feathers within the DNC for using the committee’s contact list to solicit donations for his own political action committee (PAC), Leaders We Deserve, according to a report from the New York Post.
“David Hogg here: I was just elected DNC Vice Chair! This is a huge win for our movement to make the Democratic Party more reflective of our base: youthful, energetic, and ready to win,” reads one of eight texts, which include solicitation links to “Leaders We Deserve,” sent out to a DNC database of phone numbers, according to the report.
The texts aren’t sitting well with some DNC insiders, who believe the committee’s vast database of numbers and donors should be used to help the future of the party, not a member’s individual PAC.
“David Hogg – talk about living up to your name. A trough of DNC dollars all for him and he doesn’t seem to give an oink,” one top Democrat told the Post.
When you’re too much of a grifter for top Democrats…
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Former RNC Chair Who Now Works for MSNBC Has Total On-Air Meltdown About Elon Musk and DOGE (Video).
MSNBC’s Michael Steele unloaded on Democrats during a rant on Saturday, demanding they start to show they care about people “losing their jobs” and President Donald Trump’s early actions as president.
“I’d just like you to show that you give a damn!” Steele, a former RNC Chair turned MSNBC host, said. “That you get a little emotional about the fact that people are losing their jobs indiscriminately! That this individual sitting down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has given absolute power to one man, who brings his son into the Oval Office, whose son says to him, ‘you’re not the president! You shouldn’t be in that chair!’ Now, where did he get that from? He got it from his daddy! Because that’s what his daddy thinks of the man who brought him into the Oval Office.”…
“They’re in your bedrooms!” Steele continued. “They’re in your living rooms! They’re in your businesses! They’ve got they got your data, dumb a–! They got all your stuff! Elon Musk has his tentacles in everything you’re doing! Not just off of X, but he’s in the Treasury Department! He’s in the Labor Department! He’s in Department of Homeland Security!”
How odd that Steele is so very, very angry about Musk’s efforts to trim the size of government, when in 2010, while chairman of the GOP, he was shouting: “Fire Pelosi!”
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele hit the road in a big red bus Wednesday. And not because some in the GOP would like to see the back of him as their party’s chief spokesman (although that’s also true).
No, Steele’s latest ploy to rev up his party as it tries to figure out what to do about the “tea party” movement is the “Fire Pelosi Bus Tour.” Over the next six weeks, the bus will cover 14,000 miles, visiting more than 100 cities and towns in its quest to help oust House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) of California. And oh yes, Steele hopes, raise a lot of money along the way through its special website.
“The next six weeks will be entirely devoted to firing Nancy Pelosi, standing up to the Democrat’s big-government agenda, and diving into the trenches to do the hard work of turning out the vote and winning races up and down the ballot,” he said in a statement.
So was Steele lying then about “standing up to the Democrat’s big-government agenda?” Or is he lying now to keep the Comcast-MSNBC bucks flowing? If it’s the former, then a cynical man might conclude:
UPDATE: Absolutely perfect:
I SEE . . . DEAD PEOPLE:
🚨Karoline Leavitt says Elon Musk and DOGE have been sent to investigate DEAD PEOPLE receiving Social Security payments:
“They suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.”
pic.twitter.com/Esz9wFPXlo— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 18, 2025
I wonder how many of these 120 to 150-year-olds also voted? https://t.co/rTUhD7hGVq
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) February 18, 2025