Projection? Gaslighting? Narcissism?

Posted on 2025-01-20 by TPOL Nathan

Well, are you celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday today? Or still mourning for POTUS James Earl Carter? Or celebrating and rejoicing in the inauguration of Trump 2.0 – the new regime of The Donald? Or just celebrating the ending of Uncle Joe’s four years of – well, the list is too long to go through now.

But this is a good time to talk about the personality traits or characteristics of politicians.

Now, we won’t be so crude as to ask that if the ISS had deorbited and hit the Capitol Dome at 12 noon today, whether the Fifty States and the world (maybe even the Solar System) would be better off or not. We’re sure you have your own thoughts about that.

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Just remember

Posted on 2025-01-19 by TPOL Nathan

Tomorrow is Inauguration Day.

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Goodbye to SecDef Austin – and in his place?

Posted on 2025-01-18 by TPOL Nathan

Hegseth has seemingly weathered the Senate committee hearings. More people are confident that the young commentator and combat veteran will be sustained by the entire Senate.

I suspect that few company-grade (O-1 to O-3 lieutenants and captains/ensigns and lieutenants) or field-grade (O-4 to O-6 majors and colonels/commanders and captains) officers will be disappointed to have Austin go away. And many (but far from all) flag officers (O-7 and up: generals and admirals). Too many political officers: brass hats of the worst kind). The enlisted personnel of the services will be more divided, due to the quality of training and experience, but I think a majority will be happy to see him gone. As will at least some civilian DoD employees. Even a few politically-appointed and Senior Executive Service (high-level bureaucrats) will welcome the change. If it really is a change.

The arrival of Hegseth is seen mostly as throwing the windows open wide to let the fresh air in and flush out the corrupt, poisonous air that has weakened and contaminated and demoralized the Department of Defense. Not only the Uniformed Services, but the civilian bureaucracy and workforce.

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Why are eggs selling for $8, $9, $10+ a dozen?

Posted on 2025-01-17 by TPOL Nathan

Actually, here in the Black Hills, they are still just under $7/dozen, at least on Sunday last. But we hear of skyrocketing prices across the country.

A correspondent has shared part of the answer to the question: Mass Destruction of Livestock Backfiring with Greater Zoonotic H5N1 Spread

Our TPOL correspondent expresses his doubts about both the motives of the cullers and their sanity, and adds: ” Instead, we, the not-so-rich, can’t afford eggs. Take reparations out of cullers’ assets, most definitely also including their retirement accounts!”

The story reports 100 million chickens (laying hens) wiped out early in 2024. It is probably nearer 200 million “culled” now, nationwide.

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Ignore the dummy in the window

Posted on 2025-01-16 by TPOL Nathan

MSN reports that the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is worried about the threat of Venezuelan dictator Maduro to “liberate” Puerto Rico by invading it and driving out the evil, hated Yankees who rule it as a colony.

So what did the Governor do on Tuesday? She wrote the FedGov, of course. In her brief letter, she stated that she trusted the “administration will swiftly respond and make clear to the Maduro regime” that “the United States will protect American lives and sovereignty and will not bow down to the threats of petty, murderous dictators.”

That of course, is an accurate assessment of the Maduro regime. And a reasonable request.

But what is odd is that she did not send the letter to the current President of the United States, dear, beloved, and successful Uncle Joe Biden. Or to his Secretary of State or the current National Security Advisor.

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Minnesota – is civil war looming?

Posted on 2025-01-15 by TPOL Nathan

The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes – aka The Land of Ten Thousand Flakes to neighboring States to the West and South of Minnesota – has a problem with its government. A new one.

Of course, like many States, Minnesota has a few islands of Democratic strongholds surrounded by a sea of Republicans, as this State House of Representatives map (2024) shows.

Put simply, the State government is broken. In many ways. Minnesota, known as the westernmost of the Scandinavian countries, has nearly 6 million people. In addition to all those lakes (and according to many people, the lakes are the reason that), the State also has 600 billion mosquitos. But the really dangerous parasites that infest the State are its politicians.

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Hoping for miracles?

Posted on 2025-01-14 by TPOL Nathan

A few days back, our friends at Paradigm (formerly Agora) dug this survey up from last year. With just seven days to a Trump 2.0 regime, we have to remember that we should NOT get our hopes us.

It is an interesting compendium, not just on expectations for The Donald. He is obviously a miracle worker on the scale of the Nazarene Himself in the eyes of many. But on what an interesting list it is: the things that Americans are really concerned about. And maybe even praying about.

Quite the list, eh?

It is disappointing, of course. There is nothing on the list about preserving our individual liberties, restoring the freedom siphoned away from us. (At a faster rate in the last 4-5 years than the past 50.) There is nothing about preserving our society, our culture, or even the basics of life for our children, grandchildren, and future generations.

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Pandering? Or repentant?

Posted on 2025-01-13 by TPOL Nathan

Despite the fact that The Price of Liberty is published on WordPress, which is a form of social media, we here at TPOL don’t really like social media. There are many reasons, but a major one is the ability of a small but powerful group of people to censor what is written. Whether it is Truth Social, or X, or Facebook, or YouTube. Or a dozen other versions.

Facebook has been a prime example of this, led by the infamous Mark Zuckerberg.

Recently, though, this guy seems to have lost his spots. He recently wrote:

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Seriously? The most trusted governmental institution?

Posted on 2025-01-10 by TPOL Nathan

As we near the end of what many observers say is the most incompetent and bad presidential administration in the history of the United States, this shows up.

Wow.

The military remains the most trusted U.S. institution, according to the latest Reagan National Defense Survey. In the seventh installment of the survey, 51% of respondents said they have “a great deal” of confidence in the military, up from 46% a year ago.

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Your 1.27 billion dollar memorial for Jimmy Carter

Posted on 2025-01-09 by TPOL Nathan

Today, 9 January 2025, is the National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

So of course, “citing tradition,” all “non-essential” Federal employees are given the day off. There are (per Google search) over 3 million of them: roughly 1 for every 108 Americans (not sure if that includes border jumpers and green-card/visa tourists).

The average FedGov employee salary is a staggering $106,000+ which works out to about $423 per 8-hour day. Sweet, eh?

And that means that for $1,270,000,000 taken out of taxpayers’ wallets (or stolen from the future as the Federal debt continues to balloon), the taxpayer gets … nothing. No work done. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Assuming that the 3 million + federal workers actually do productive work. And we admit that some do: FAA, for example. (Well, at least the air traffic controllers.) National Forest and National Park Rangers: at least those who help people and pick up litter. and USFS and NPS maintenance workers. The guys and gals that run the big powerhouses at the various dams (like the Missouri mainsteam dams: Oahe, Fort Peck, etc.). At least some of the folks at the nice, big national museums in DC and elsewhere. And many of the US Postal Service mail sorters and deliverers. (Even though their deliveries consist of more and more junk mail and take more and more time.) And a few more.

But we here at TPOL suspect that (1) most of the productive work (if not all) done by fedgov employees can be done better, at fewer costs, by private businesses and workers, and (2) probably a good half of that 3 million + are not really doing productive work: they are shuffling needless paperwork (electronically, these days, admittedly) and creating problems, not solutions, for the nation and the world. And lording it over Americans, to boot.

So today, just think about this. As the people in all those offices we HAVE to deal with to stay out of trouble or get things done didn’t answer their phones or emails today. (And we would bet that a lot of them take a personal day of leave tomorrow (Friday) for yet another 4-day weekend. They had time to think about and appreciate a 100-year-old man who spent 4 years in the White House. A “peanut farmer” who was really a Navy officer and a nuclear power engineer who gave up a working, productive career to be a public parasite (political activist and politician in elected office) and then tried to make amends by a 40-year retirement (admittedly still on your tab) of good deeds. (James Earl Carter was not totally bad, and maybe even better than some Massas in DC, but his list of misdeeds is long.)

The government employees didn’t have to work today so they could ponder the life of Jimmy Carter. While you continued to slave today to, among many other things, pay their salaries. What an honor

Aren’t you blessed?

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