Commentary
Periodically, an annoying reminder to “Consider Taking a Break” appears on the instrument cluster of my new car, but I choose to ignore it, however, family matters matter, so I took a brief break from my commentaries on politics.
But I’m back; hopefully with a few topics you may have missed.
As Expected
Commander in Chief Trump and his newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, relieved six top officers of duty, including Gen. C.Q. Brown, chairman of the joint chiefs, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations.
Both of them were believed to be DEI appointments. Brown, who is black, bought into the Biden’s DEI program and recommended a military with fewer white officers. Biden promoted Franchetti, the first woman to the CNO position, over Adm. Sam Paparo of the Pacific Command, who many expected to be promoted.
Intel Employees Ousted
While all cabinet level officers will be announcing reductions in staff in coming days and weeks, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard didn’t hesitate to terminate a hundred NSA employees for committing an “egregious violation of trust.”
Using the NSA “intelink” messaging platform, they participated in obscene and explicit chatrooms, discussing their experiences with gender reassignment surgery, artificial genitalia, hormone therapy , polyamory and pronoun usage.
How Much Intel Do We Need?
When we normally think about intelligence agencies in the government, the CIA, DNI, NSA, DIA and the FBI come to mind, but there are 12 more. This appears to me to be an area for the DOGE team to look into possible efficiency savings.
Musk and DOGE
While Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan suggested that what we have learned so far in waste, fraud and abuse is like drinking from a fire hose, she concedes that what she has seen so far is “exhilarating.”
She comments that the real pursuit should be in entitlements and defense, suggesting that whatever is found in other areas will only amount to a “rounding error.” The estimated $65 billion already found is hardly a rounding error. Surely, you’ve already heard about the outrageous waste and fraud found in the U.S. Agency for International Development. Space will not permit me to list them.
They’re looking at fraud in Social Security entitlements, finding 14 million people over 120 years of age still receiving payments. Who’s managing those bank accounts where those payments are being sent? Or, who’s cashing those checks?
Regarding Defense, Secretary Hegseth issued a welcome to DOGE, where an audit has not been conducted in seven years.
It’s a standoff
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey reveals that 48 percent of likely voters believe President Trump is acting like a dictator, which 46 percent think he is doing what voters elected him to do. When you get to the partisan split, 74 percent of Democrats think he is acting like a dictator, while the exact percentage of Republicans view him doing what voters elected him to do.
Meanwhile, the Harvard-Harris poll reveals that respondents overwhelmingly like what the president is doing on immigration/deportation (81 percent), DOGE (76 percent), blocking men from participating in women’s sports (69 percent), and stating his belief that there are just two genders, male and female, (68 percent).
Overhaul at MSNBC
As the network separates from NBC, there are a number of changes in the mill. Of note was the cancellation of Joy Reid’s over-the-top show, TheReidOut.
Surprising to me, but not to Rebecca Kutler, the left-leaning network’s recently named president, former Biden press secretary, Jen Psaki, will have an hour-long show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Inside With Jen Psaki is said to be Kutler’s brainchild.
I continue to be puzzled with the pollical turnabout of Michael Steele, who will be featured on a weekend panel show on MSNBC. While hearing his rants against Trump and now Musk, too, I am reminded that he co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, a fiscally conservative PAC in the 1990s, chaired GOPAC 2007-2009, and chaired the Republican National Committee, 2009-2011. See what I mean?
And at The Washington Post
You may recall that the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, caused a stir at his paper when he announced there would be no presidential endorsement just prior to the election. A number of employees quit.
Now, Bezos has announced a change on his opinion pages, stating the paper would cover support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. Editor David Shipley decided to resign.
The change on the opinions pages hasn’t stopped the Post from attacking Trump at every opportunity on the news side. In a piece about a woman who thought Trump’s victory would change her life, the Post wrote how her job in the U. S. Forest Service was purged and she worries about Trump’s promise of IVF treatment availability. In a sidebar in that article, the Post appealed to readers to contact the Post with stories of people affected by DOGE.
Across the country, however, in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, a positive story appeared about a woman from Sidney, Ohio, and another in Chicago, who voted for Trump because of his promise on IVF, delighted with his signing an executive order on February 18, 2025, calling for reducing the cost of the treatment.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
