Here's a Big Part of the Problem

Soros and the Like..

Billionaire left-wing donor George Soros contributed $10 million to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's ballot initiative to redistrict the state, The New York Times reported Friday. 

Soros, who has helped fund left-wing campaigns stretching from district attorneys to federal elections, contributed the single largest donation amount to Newsom's effort to redraw the state's congressional lines. 

Soros is the founder of the Open Society Foundations, which is a massive $25 billion nonprofit. His son Alex succeeded him as chair of the board of directors of the Open Society Foundations in 2022. 

Is there anybody who honestly thinks George Soros gives a fig about social causes or human rights? Hell, no. He cares only about accelerating the disintegration of America, American society and Americans.

More Common Sense from the Administration and its Supporters

As reported, there are big problems in the trucking sector.

In 2017, 18 year old Connor Dzion was killed by a distracted truck driver who could not read English and ignored critical warning signs as he barreled down the highway near Jacksonville. In August, a semi driven by an illegal who can't read or speak English made a u-turn illegally and jack-knifed killing three and injuring 6 in St. Augustine, FL. Just two examples of deaths caused by illegal operators who can't read street signs. 

Get this - some 3 million people recently called for leniency for the immigrant truck driver who made the illegal U-turn that killed a family of three. The online petition claimed the act was "not intentional."

Not intentional? It's more than intentional.  It's insane to try to make a U-turn on I-95 with a semi.  Just plain insane.  It is illegal to drive a commercial vehicle if you can't read road signs - not to mention being in the country illegally. Yet California gave him a CDL. His insane, INTENTIONAL maneuver cost 3 lives. Clemency? I think not. American lives should not be considered collateral damage for failed social justice initiatives or the desires of shifty trucking companies that seek to undercut the wages of domestic truck drivers.

These are not new expectations or requirements. Existing federal regulations have long stipulated that CDL drivers must "read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records." 

In 2016, however, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), at the direction of the Obama administration, quietly stripped English-proficiency violations from its out-of-service criteria, effectively gutting enforcement of that commonsense rule.

Thankfully, Transportation Secretary Duffy has threatened to pull back federal funds if states don't comply. So far three states have refused. Guess which ones? Bingo - CA, WA, NM.

Sorry. I don't think it's out of the question to require the driver of an 80,000 rig barreling down the interstate at 70+ mph to be able to read highway signs. But that's just me.

Famous but Long Forgotten Words

The great communicator, Ronald Reagan, warned that if Fascism ever came to America it would come from Liberalism. After all, what is fascism but totalitarian-all controlling government? Conservatives have always been for less government and still are. Just take DOGE for example.

Hope You Had a Chance

To watch the Charlie Kirk Tribute on Sunday. It was truly inspirational. When a fan like myself eschews Sunday NFL to watch four hours of this moving celebration of Kirk's life, you know it had some grip. At least for me.

Political Violence is Bad but...

This is the best the Liberals can do when acknowledging the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk. In almost all cases the "but" leads to some lame justification or diminution.

Was sent an article that recounted reports of college students at several of our most "significant" universities concerning the reaction of their professors. By far, the popular reaction was to ignore the event entirely. So much for inquisitive or thought provoking discussion, huh?

In the cases cited, however, the students took umbrage at the indifference of their universities and professors to situations that don't support their woke, leftwing dialogue. Might be hope yet.

Here's What the Bartender (also Dem Standard Bearer) Had to Say about Charlie Kirk's Assassination

“Charlie Kirk's assassination was a horrific and vile attack, an incident of political violence,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 

“The majority (in Congress) then proceeded with a resolution that brings great pain to the millions of Americans who endured segregation, Jim Crow, and the legacy of bigotry today,” she continued.  

She said Kirk’s “rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans, far from the ‘working tirelessly to promote unity' asserted by the majority in this resolution.” 

Honestly, now. Scotch and soda anyone?

Another Class Act

By now you've probably become aware of another loud, obnoxious mouthpiece for the Democrats named Jasmine Crocket. The representative from Texas attends the Ilhan Omar, AOC, Jimmy Kimmel school of political wisdom and hateful rhetoric.

In recent debate on the bill named in honor of Kayla Hamilton, Crocket exclaimed, "You take a situation, and then you exploit what has happened and you make it a game. Stop just throwing some random dead person’s name on something for your own political expediency."

That "random dead person" was a 20 year old young woman named Kayla Hamilton who was sexually assaulted and strangled in 2022 by a teenager from El Salvador in the country illegally and an MS-13 member.

We've Forgotten How to Hate

I deserve no credit for the words that follow. I excerpted them largely verbatim from a piece penned by Bill Bennett in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination. I found them insightful, provocative and compelling.

Bennett: "Let me advance an unconventional thesis: Charlie Kirk died because we have forgotten how to hate properly. G.K. Chesterton observed that "the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is along side him. We fight not for hatred of our enemies but love of our fellow soldiers and the ideals of our country." Today in this country and many places around the world, we have inverted this wisdom. We teach our young people to hate their opponents rather than love their own principles. We have made politics a blood sport precisely because we have drained it of transcendent meaning. When you believe in nothing greater than your own righteousness, the only thing left is to destroy those who challenge your certainty.

The modern university, where Kirk met his end, has become the opposite of what John Henry Newman envisioned when he wrote "The Idea of a University." Newman imagined institutions where "a habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom." Instead, we have created factories of fragility, where students pay $70,000 a year to have their prejudices confirmed and their triggers avoided.

The founders would have recognized Charlie immediately. Franklin with his junto, Hamilton with his newspapers, Jefferson with his correspondence, they all understood that democracy is an argument, not an answer. Madison wrote in Federalist 10 about the dangers of faction, but he never imagined we would solve the problem of faction with assassination.

Here is another unconventional thought: The problem is not that our universities are too political. They are not political in the classical sense of "political" that Aristotle meant when he called man a political animal. The university problem is that they are factories of indoctrination, especially in the liberal arts. Real politics requires engagement with difference, the ability to live alongside those you disagree with, the skill of persuasion rather than coercion. Our campuses have replaced politics with theology, and a particularly intolerant theology at that.

The question before us is not whether we will have more Charlie Kirks—young people willing to brave hostility for their beliefs. We will. The question is how many more capable people will retreat from public engagement because the cost has become too high. Few of the brightest people dream of entering politics—they dream of venture capital, private equity, the places where talent can still flourish without ideological inquisition. It makes brutal sense: Make enough money, and perhaps you can affect the change you want to see in society, safely insulated from the mob.

If we cannot make America safe for argument again—not just civil argument, but vigorous, passionate, even angry argument—then we should stop pretending we live in a democracy. In its literal etymological sense, democracy means "power of the people"—today it feels more like power of the perpetually aggrieved. If you are not consumed with rage, you are at home raising your family and going to work, which explains why radical political movements naturally attract the angriest, not necessarily the wisest."

CME: This reality must be some of what Rush had in mind when he said (repeatedly) it is pointless to try and argue with a liberal.

Cool Saying

Great minds discuss ideas.

Average minds discuss events.

Small minds discuss people (Gossip)

E. Roosevelt

Some Common Sense on Education

If you have followed CME for a bit, you know the abysmal education of our children is a red hot button. Both from the standpoint of brainwashing even our youngest with woke, anti-American ideology. And, more basically, turning out hordes of students who can't meet basic proficiencies in math and reading. And, oh by the way, there are plenty of so-called charter schools whose outcomes suck too.

This week I learned about some experiments whose results intrigued, maybe even encouraged me. Let me share in case you missed.

To review, the latest national standardized tests showed that 45% of 12th grades (yes, those supposedly prepared to enter college or the workforce) performed below basic in math and 32% below basic in reading. Now you tell me how we are to keep pace with China in the AI-world around the corner. No - already here.

Roland Fryer is a professor of Economics at Harvard, a founder of Equal Opportunity Ventures. He recently recapped some results from experiments for multiple years in Houston and Denver middle schools. He took the 20 worst schools in Houston and made them average in just three years. All by applying what he calls things we already know. The specific practices were distilled from years of studying highly effective charter schools.

They are:

• Longer time on task - you know longer days, longer years. Remember the story about the middle school I passed here in Fort Lauderdale that advertised it starts at 830 and finishes at 2. Subtract travel time between classes, gym, recess and lunch. What's left?

• Teacher Feedback - giving all teachers specific feedback EVERY MONTH on where they must improve. Not once a year.

• High dosage tutoring. Groups of six.

• High expectations - even for those disadvantaged by poverty, single parent households etc.

The results in math were astounding. The progress was the equivalent of four months of extra schooling per year. Less so in reading probably because reading improves the more you do it and many of these kids returned to home environments not conducive.

But the real point is BASICS. More effort, more teaching, higher expectations, more accountability. It's not smaller class sizes, more psychological counseling, more masters degrees.

When Professor Fryer was asked with such irrefutable needs and results why were these practices being widely embraced. He exclaimed...this is the most frustrating I have ever been as an academic. The reason things are stonewalled is adult politics. Teachers unions, administrators, even parents in more affluent schools who complained disproportionate resources were going to schools with lower income students, which they claim is rewarding failure.

The "Real" Inconvenient Truth

Boy is this awkward for the lefties.

Remember when Al Gore made a boat of $$$ and regained a thimble full of relevance when he made a documentary on global warming call An Inconvenient Truth?

Since then liberals have been ponying up taxpayer money at every turn to fund boondoggle projects for their cronies. Green energy they called it. Then "renewables". It pretty much kicked off with Obama as most bad things did. Remember Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. It was chockablock full of emptyheaded investments in green energy. Meanwhile starving proven sources of energy and forcing "allies" to buy Russian oil and gas.

Well, how's that turning out?

For years, media and green advocates have insisted that solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of electricity. This claim is central to the idea that a green transition is inevitable and beneficial — even under a second Trump administration. But two decades of evidence shows the opposite. The countries that have added the most solar and wind also have the highest power costs. 

The claim of "cheap" solar and wind is built on a sleight of hand. These sources are indeed often competitive when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. But modern societies need power 24/7. When the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing, countries must rely on costly backup — mostly fossil fuels. Factoring in these costs reveals that renewables are far from cheap. 

A study of China found solar’s real cost was twice that of coal. Research about Germany and Texas showed that once backup costs are included, solar and wind go from appearing slightly cheaper to many times more expensive. 

Germany, Spain, Denmark and the U.K. have some of the world’s highest electricity costs alongside massive investments in renewables. Last year, households and industries in the EU paid more than 26 cents per kilowatt-hour, more than double the U.S. price of 13 cents and triple the price in China. The U.K., with its even greener ambition, paid an eye-watering 36 cents per kilowatt-hour, nearly three times the U.S. price.

Across 70 countries, International Energy Agency data shows a clear pattern: more renewables, higher costs. Every 10% increase in the share of wind and solar raises average power costs by over four cents per kilowatt-hour. 

Poor countries can’t afford the lie 

If solar and wind were truly cheaper, poor countries would leapfrog to them. Yet the opposite is happening. Across developing nations, electricity demand rose almost 5% last year — mostly met by fossil fuels. China used more additional coal than it used additional solar and wind combined. Bangladesh used 13 times more additional coal than additional renewables. 

India, praised for ambitious solar goals, still added three times more coal than solar and wind. Billionaire Gautam Adani, struggling to find buyers for a $6 billion solar project, allegedly resorted to a $265 million bribery scheme — because most Indian states refuse to rely on unreliable renewables. 

Poor nations know reliability matters. Rich nations can indulge the solar-and-wind illusion only because they already have fossil backups and lavish subsidies. 

And this doesn't include the ramifications of having to buy gas and oil from sworn enemies.

Nobody is really against protecting the planet for the future. But, we still gotta live today, so let's have a sane transition.

Too bad we can't have honest, fact-based, levelheaded dialogue. Yeah, sure.

Generals' DOGE

In a rare move, Secretary of War Hegseth has ordered hundreds of senior military officers to VA next week for a face-to face conference. Speculation has it this is in conjunction with his stated goal of a 20% reduction in the top heavy military structure.

To frame this objective be aware that...there are currently 44 four-star and flag officers across the military, making for a ratio of one general to 1,400 troops, compared to the ratio during World War II of one general to 6,000 troops. Hegseth calls it "the fewer generals and more GIs program". Bet this is going over like an ill wind in church.

Here We Go!

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for alleged false statements and obstruction of congressional proceeding. AKA - lying to Congress in the federal investigation of Crossfire Hurricane. CH was the investigation into Trump-Russia collusion fueled by the fake dossier that came from the Clinton campaign. CH was investigated twice (by Mueller and Durham) and found to be completely bogus.

Have long said a few of these criminals need to go up the river to stop all this going forward. Doubt they'll throw the book as him, but let's see. Don't leave town Clapper, Brennan, McCabe, Schiff.

Guess Who's Back Dating?

The Trump administration agency that manages the government’s real estate holdings, procurement and technology services is partnering with Elon Musk’s xAI in a move it says will cost effectively streamline federal workflow. 

The General Services Administration announced on Thursday morning that federal agencies will now have access to Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast as part of an agreement with xAI, valid until March 2027, that Musk says will make government drive innovation in government. 

"xAI has the most powerful AI compute and most capable AI models in the world," Musk, co-founder and CEO of xAI, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

"Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI’s frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency empowering the U.S. Government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before," Musk added. "We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country."

After completing his tenure with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in late May and a public falling out with Trump, Musk was seen sitting next to and talking with Trump at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk last weekend in Arizona, suggesting a possible rekindling of their friendship.

Trump has made U.S. artificial intelligence growth a cornerstone of his administration, such as notching multi-billion deals with high-tech firms such as Oracle and OpenAI for the Stargate project, which is an effort to launch large data centers in the U.S, as well as a $90 billion energy and tech investment deal specifically for the state of Pennsylvania to make it the U.S. hub for AI. 

Happy trails until the next dust up.

Have a nice, peaceful weekend.