Midweek Musings (8/4/26)
Whatta Ya Got to Lose?
Looks like in the state of Montana you can now try experimental drugs if you're game. For a cost of $12,500 and a review board okay, you can sign up to try an experimental drug. One not yet, maybe never, approved by the FDA. The drug company sets the price.
For the first time, Biotechs have a faster path to market. This "right to try" legislation seems like a good idea to me. At least at first blush.
That said...can you imagine the disclaimers on this stuff? Today if you buy baby aspirin you are "warned" that you may be subject to...high blood pressure, palpitations, upset stomach, heart attack, the Mongol hordes breaking down your door and flaying you alive, etc.
I fear some beneficiaries may die before they're done reading the disclaimers.
Don't Be Silly!
“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” President Donald Trump triumphantly declared on Truth Social on Thursday.
The Board of Peace, presided over by Trump and including Turkey and Qatar among its members, was charged with funding and implementing the administration’s September 2025 20-point peace plan for Gaza. This provided for a permanent ceasefire and the return of all of Hamas’s Israeli hostages, living and dead. But the fulfillment of the subsequent points—Gaza reconstruction, deradicalization, and long-term efforts for peace—was contingent on Hamas disarmament.
The question is: Will Hamas really give up its guns?
A closer reading of the agreement reveals that Hamas will not initially turn over its weapons but only put them in storage. Further ambiguity surrounds the definition of the word “weapons”—whether it refers only to rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, as Hamas prefers, or to all small arms as well. Hamas has a stockpile of 69,000 AK-47s, the principal weapon used in the October slaughter.
To me this question has been asked and answered. Hamas will never give up its guns. Who is their sponsor after all? Like father like son.
RIP Big Pussy
Big Pussy Bonpensiero passed away on Sunday. In real life, Victor Pastore. Hard to believe Sopranos last episode was 20 years ago. In true Soprano's tradition, Big Pussy got whacked on the show.
HRH's Diary
Fauci knew in February 2020 that Covid’s case fatality rate was pretty low.
He wrote, “This is acting like a bad influenza in its transmissibility,” and that the fatality rate is “more like 0.2-0.3 percent rather than 2.0 percent.”
Schools were shut. Careers were lost. Businesses closed forever. Suicides spiked.
Fau-cheed
A person or group who believes what they've been told because the one who told them was a "subject expert" or a man of science. Or both.
Now Watch the Votes
The Senate will next consider whether to refer Fauci to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Since this is a no-brainer all should agree, right? Anybody wanna bet that, despite overwhelming self incrimination by Fauci himself, the Democrats will vote to approve? I didn't think so. 10,000 to 1 against.
Silver Lining?
Just when it seems like the Socialists have taken over the Democratic party with the approval of voters. Just when midterms are looming as a disaster for the Trump administration. There may be a silver lining of sorts.
The DNC is in big trouble. The Democratic National Committee is broke. They’ve made their whole thing about hating rich people, and now they want some of those rich people to help them out. Like a temperamental kid who runs away from home with four dollars and a guinea pig, now they’re broke and they’re hungry.
The DNC is asking vendors not to send invoices until after the midterms. And the DNC chair was described throwing his phone at a staffer’s desk. As Democrats, the only solution is to acknowledge the problem and fix it, But can they even articulate the problem?
Top Dems are doing promotional videos outside rich people’s homes saying, we hate this specific family, whose names are Todd, Kat, and Blake. And then they get confused why Todd’s not writing a big fat check this year.
Fraud Update: Just 'Cause You Live in a Red State
Doesn't mean you're not a crook.
The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division uncovered roughly $350 million in alleged fraud across 17 cases in seven Southeastern states. The cases involve SNAP benefits, SBA loans, housing assistance and tax fraud. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina agreed to share corporate registration and public-benefits data with the DOJ to help identify broader fraud patterns.
It does mean your state will cooperate instead of stonewall.
When Activism Supplants History
We've seen it before. Starting with labeling the Constitution's framers as racist farmers.
Apparently it's been happening unreported - right under our nose. In the nation's capital in our most prestigious museum.
So what's going on?
Today, the Smithsonian's's own stated goal is to turn museums "from institutions of education, of public education, into institutions to encourage activism."
Exhibits now include overtly sexual topics such as "Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall" and others featuring transgenderism and bondage.
The museum follows something called the 2017 MASS Action Toolkit. A guide for museum professionals that features the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri police shooting and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests while describing "objectivity" as a characteristic of "white supremacy culture".
During a 2024 presentation to undergraduate and graduate history students, Museum Director Anthea Hartig explained the museum removed the mention of "American history" from its mission statement because it was "hard to get out of the 'America First' mentality."
Honestly, I always thought the mission of the Smithsonian was to accurately, factually chronicle GREAT moments in American history. You know...to kinda make us remember and be proud. Especially the children. Not these days.
Marco Gets It Right...Again
Here's what Secretary of State Rubio had to say about Communism (or as we know in the US - the DSA):
"One of the criticisms you sometimes hear of communism, for example, is that it sounds good in theory, but it never works in practice. That’s actually not true.
Communism does not sound good in theory. The world it envisions for all of us is small, flat, gray, leveled of all exception, drained of all that is good and noble in the human soul. (E.g., Russia, Cuba etc.)
The world it envisions is a world without courage, a world without creativity or ambition, a world without heroes or glory or great causes to strive toward - a world without miracles, without myths, without men who rise above the rest to do incredible and extraordinary things."
Be Interesting to See Where It Goes
AI, I'm talking about. Will it really disempower human beings? Who will end up controlling the data we consume, the answers we receive, the advice we trust, probably someday even the actions we take and the sense of morality to which we adhere?
Human beings weren't meant to have only hobbies. Rather to have vocations. Do real and valuable work. Invent, create, strive for a better way and...oh yeah, excellence.
Will human intellect and motivation be expanded...or will it shrink?
What happen "when" we no longer have to figure out math problems or cures for disease or how to code?
Will AI rob humanity of its essence or...as the AI sponsors say...create a better life for all?
For sure, we're gonna find out 'cause this train has left the station under full steam.
Pretty Amazing...Pretty Sad
Only 18% of the 65 and over crowd thinks traditional media is fair, unbiased and can "be trusted most or all of the time". 18 per cent. Fewer than 1 in 5.
This number drops to 8% for those under 45.
Hell, I bet even 8% of the people in Russia, Cuba and Iran trust their media too.
No doubt who's to blame, that's for sure.
Recall...Russia-gate, Hunter's Laptop, Fauci & Covid. No one in their right mind would believe these professional prevaricators. As I have said...All the News Unfit to Print.
Did they forget? NYT still has not returned the Pulitzer Prize it was awarded for its completely false reporting on Russia-gate. Classy.
Where Does a Journalist Fired for Intellectual Dishonesty and Bias End Up?
Why the Columbia University School of Journalism where they can focus their poison on the students.
Fired by 60 Minutes, Sharyn Alfonsi and Scott Pelley now get to hold forth at what used to be one of America's top school for journalistic excellence.
The beat goes on.
Just Won't Go Away
A week or so ago we lamented the stupidity of the WNBA for trying to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Caitlin Clark.
Now they're ganging up on Sophie Cunningham, a teammate of Caitlin's. Cunningham is one of a few Women’s National Basketball Association players whom you will likely recognize, whether or not you watch women’s basketball. Very tall, very blonde, and very internet-famous for elevating the act of aggressively pointing at someone to an art form.
She is also presently at the center of a controversy stemming from comments made earlier this month in an interview with ESPN, when she spoke candidly about the issue of transgender inclusion in women’s sports.
She said, but “I think that with love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
A week later, confronted and asked to clarify or walk back these remarks, Cunningham replied, “I said what I said. I think it’s kind of common sense.”
Some took great umbrage at this, of course. Several online commentators called Cunningham transphobic and demanded she be suspended. Ringer writer Joel Anderson posted something sneering about her “grift.”
Think Groceries Cost Too much?
Pursuant to our piece on Mandan's city-owned grocery stores, let's not forget...
Walk into any supermarket, and you’re standing inside one of the toughest businesses on Earth.
The average grocery store keeps about a penny and a half of profit for every dollar that passes through the register.
That’s it. Fill a cart with $200 worth of groceries, and after paying for inventory, labor, rent, and everything else, the store pockets maybe $3.
That’s the business model: move mountains of product, keep almost none of the money and pray the volume carries you.
Course even a 3-cent profit on a dollar is better than the 28 cents Mamdani Marts will lose on every dollar.
Oh, by the way, in addition to being required to show picture ID to use Olive Garden's Never-ending Pasta Card, you need one to use Mamdani Marts. Just not to vote for the leaders of our country.
Cut 'Em Loose
Just send 'em back into the community
A convicted killer shot two men, killing one, less than two hours after he was released from a North Carolina jail on bond last week. Another stunning timeline that raises again why the repeat violent offender was freed in the first place.
David Simpson, 29, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and possession of a firearm by a felon in the July 29 shooting at an east Charlotte apartment complex. Finally a judge denied bail.
Court records show Simpson was released from the Mecklenburg County Jail at 12:20 a.m. after posting a $10,000 bond for possession of a weapon by a prisoner. Police said the shooting happened less than two hours later, around 1:45 a.m., leaving one man dead and another seriously wounded.
Court records show Simpson was previously charged with first-degree murder in a 2013 fatal shooting but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2015. He served about five years in prison before being released on parole in 2020.
Since then, he has been arrested several more times, including on multiple charges of possession of a firearm by a felon. He also had pending charges this year for possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting a public officer and misdemeanor larceny.
The shooting involved a dispute over a parking space. What kind of people do these liberal judges let walk around free?
Sure Never Thought I'd Say This
But the Democrats would do well to have Pelosi back in charge. At least she kept the radicals in the cage.
Joe Misses the Cut
When asked to name the three most effective Presidents in her lifetime, Kamala Harris named...wait...wait... FDR, JFK and Obama. FDR died 20 years before she was born. JFK also died before she arrived.
At least she didn't include her boss. Can you imagine leaving Reagan off the list? Amazing.
The Democrats prove time and again that what they say matters not. They can walk back anything. Campaign promises...rubbish. Stupid statements, uninformed views, outright fabrications...turn the page.
Why? No matter how contradictory, outlandish or patently untrue a statement, they never, ever get called on it by LSM.
Is the Price of Eggs Really More Important...
than a nuclear free Iran? Are the issues binary? There are those who are intent on conflating the war in Iran with the claims of an affordability crisis caused, ostensibly, by Donald Trump.
This is, of course, nonsense. But even if it were true that a) there is truly an affordability crisis; b) the root cause is President Trump's determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and the capability to deliver to NY or DC or LA; is that not a reasonable trade? A temporary blip in gas prices and maybe even a dozen eggs to ensure that a fanatical regime who swears death to America cannot nuke us?
Trump was the Flamethrower
Have you noticed more and more Republicans willing to stand up and be counted?
For years I have bemoaned the Republican's lack of backbone. For years I have watched as leftwing media and politicians walked over Republican leaders in Congress. Insulting, denigrating, defaming and outright lying.
And yet, we, apparently thinking it undignified to fight back, rolled over.
Well all that's stopped. Thanks to Donald J. Trump. We now, not only stand up, but we give back as good as we get. The Ron DeSantis, Jim Abbott's, Marco Rubio's, and yes Bobby Kennedy Jr's of the world are not taking it any more.
No more rolling over. No more letting the slurs of the Left slide.
In Trump We Trust?
As much as I hate to admit it, it seems most of America doesn't trust our President. When, if a nation loses its faith in its duly elected leader this is both a sad and serious thing.
Unfortunately, that is where we may be at.
Of course the 24/7 onslaught of attacks on the President, his motives and his integrity by the Left is a huge factor. But mustn't Trump himself some blame?
Constant flip flopping. Wildly irresponsible superlatives. Publicly turning on allies in a hot second if their actions displease him. These do not engender feelings of reliability or trust.
Trust is reciprocal and I can't help but wonder if, down deep, Donald Trump really doesn't trust the American people either. I think of Jack Nicolson..."You can't handle the truth".
Might Wanna Rethink Your Attitude toward a Gun
Is carrying a personal protection device really such a bad idea?
Consider what happened at the In-N-Out burger restaurant in Idaho.
Two gun-carrying citizens chased off an assassin after he killed only one. Not the first time the scope of a tragedy was limited because someone nearby had a personal firearm. Soon after, the murderer then blew his own very twisted brains out.
I now carry one in my car. Don't need some coked out loony scrambling my eggs in a road rage incident.
This world we live in gets crazier by the day.
A Blast from the Past
Thirsty years ago the #1 song in America was the "Macarena" from the Spanish Group, Los de Rio.
Why is this significant? It's not.
Laughs
Adam and Eve were the first ones to ignore Apple's terms and conditions.
The problem isn't that obesity runs in your family. It's that nobody in your family runs.
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