Rebane's Ruminations
March 2025
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George Rebane

DOGE is the new leftwing hysteria du jour.  It has displaced climate change as the issue that gets most folks’ undies in a bundle.  The whole ‘Resist!’ movement of the Left is based on Democrat politicians’ lies and gratuitous fake news reports by the lamestream media.  DOGE is a new government agency charged with discovering fraud, waste, and abuse in the vast federal government bureaucracy.  Such abundant discoveries are documented, archived, and reported online (here) and to executive branch agents, from the president on down, who are lawfully empowered to take actions they deem appropriate – DOGE has no power to implement its recommendations.  But that is not what EVERY Democrat scumbag and their media minions tell the American people – and the lightly-read swallow the whole pack of lies hook, line, and sinker.

Idiots on Parade.  Today many of the above gently described ‘lightly-read’ are taking to the streets and concentrating on Elon Musk’s Tesla EV enterprises.  These are targets the rock apes have recently fire bombed, shot up, and vandalized, and by their silence condoned by the Democrat leadership.  These people are ALL abysmally ignorant and have no cognitive skills for critical thinking.  Unfortunately, they comprise about half of our citizens and at this stage are completely uneducable – hence why Rebane Doctrine has held that we are two divided countries within a single border.  (A wag from the past has more generously concluded that leftwingers are not necessarily ignorant, only that when they try to think they just have bad luck.)

Fox News and its conservative media cohorts (e.g. NewsMax) continue to be fearful mealy-mouthed journalists.  In their attempt to be ‘fair, balanced, and unafraid’ they are a fearful lot.  Examples of such reportage abound by the hour.  When they report on an issue, say, DOGE activities, they properly also broadcast some Democrat lying his ass off on camera, for example about DOGE gratuitously firing thousands of federal workers who have provided critical services to the public (without ever citing a single such readily available action).  Then for their fearless balance Bret Baier et al go on to state that “Elon Musk CLAIMS” that no such firings have occurred.  The properly balanced response would be to report that DOGE cannot fire anybody, and that no such firings have occurred – that is not a politically biased statement, just a readily verifiable fact that is necessary to accurately complete the news item.  And when they report on the socialists’ ongoing lie that DOGE is cutting Social Security and Medicare, they never balance that with the correction that no such cuts have occurred nor are they planned by the Trump administration.  And the double dummies just lap it up.

[30mar25 update] The New York Times has long been the nation’s leftwing canon.  It is then noteworthy that it has finally taken the Democrats and their message to account.  The newspaper’s criticism is what conservatives have been saying for years about how Democrats portray themselves and their political opponents.  Now it has become so bad that their beloved scripture has started admonishing their sins.  (more here)

[4apr25 update] Milton Friedman on tariffs from a 27apr78 speech at Kansas State University (here)

“We call a tariff a protective measure. It does protect; it protects the consumer very well against one thing. It protects the consumer against low prices. . . . 

[W]hen people talk about a favorable balance of trade, what is that term taken to mean? It’s taken to mean that we export more than we import. But from the point of view of our well-being that’s an unfavorable balance. That means we are sending out more goods and getting fewer in. Each of you in your private household would know better than that. You don’t regard it as a favorable balance when you have to send out more goods to get less coming in. . . .

[I]f you eliminate government from these matters you enable individuals to deal with one another. If you introduce protection, tariffs, restrictions on trade, they become matters for government-to-government wrangling and they are an enormous source of division. So in the name of both prosperity and world peace there are few steps that we could take which would contribute more than a complete move toward free trade.”

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172 responses to “Scattershots – 29mar25 (updated 4apr25)”

  1. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Looks like Jeffie’s narcissistic rage is reappearing…

    Like

  2. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    “More Penguins Than People: Trump Imposes Tariffs on Remote Islands”
    The argument for this is that a)they are part of a real country and b)the real country would simply transship through the island.
    Probably too complicated a concept though.
    In the interest of full coverage of current politics.
    “A 1996 video resurfaces of Nancy Pelosi discussing tariffs and the trade deficit with China.”
    https://x.com/ThomasSowell/status/1907875133638705646
    “1996: Chuck Schumer explains “the number one reason” illegals come to the US is so they can defraud programs like Social Security — and wants to stop it.”
    https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1907902248933535951
    I guess that Team Blue thinking has evolved.

    Like

  3. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: scenes | 04 April 2025 at 09:41 AM
    I guess that Team Blue thinking has evolved.

    “Never let a crisis (That you yourself have created) go to waste!”

    Like

  4. George Boardman Avatar

    Welcome to the latest installment of Trump in Blunderland, aka, Liberation Day, where tariffs aren’t taxes and they will help balance the budget.
    Don’t like what Trump’s Walmart stock market–low prices every day–is doing to your 401(k). Buck up, boys, we’re at war.
    Looney Tunes

    Like

  5. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Bored Georgeman, welcome back.
    Checking, my 401k is holding in there.
    We purchased a new car on Sunday, made in Japan (the folks who brought us Pearl Harbor). Bygones be bygones.

    Like

  6. George Rebane Avatar

    ‘These are the times that try men’s souls.’

    Like

  7. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    The car is a Subaru, and while Subaru has factories in the USA, 100% of the Foresters they make are not made here.
    We really, really like the car.
    Sorry, Jeff, they don’t make them in your size.

    Like

  8. fish Avatar
    fish

    ‘These are the times that try men’s souls.’
    I’m guessing that everyone here will eat three times (more perhaps for others) today, have adequate shelter, hot water, electricity, cable TV (or some variation thereof) and internet/phone services.
    I don’t believe that anyone here can be described as ‘suffering” given the events of this week at all. I hear a lot of whining from the usual suspects as well as the standard grade idiocy from our local street busker/serial Leonard Cohen botherer but nothing that in any historical context that could be remotely considered as suffering or having one’s “soul try(ied)”.
    We let it get to this point. We might as well put up with the consequences of our poor political and economic decisions.

    Like

  9. fish Avatar
    fish

    I’m sure that every time the progressive intelligentsia thinks that conditions are such that they could start thinking about giving “The Tangerine Tornado” the bums rush The Hill prints an article like this….

    Kamala Waiting In the Wings?

    …and they go back to “Aw shucking” and scuffing the dirt while staring at their feet.
    Surely you morons have someone better waiting in the wings than that?!?!
    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5231855-kamala-harris-california-summit/mlite/

    Like

  10. Resurrected Hillbilly Avatar
    Resurrected Hillbilly

    Trump thanks his staff for hoarding enough plastic eggs for the White House Easter “Egg” hunt.
    When will the US iPhone manufacturing plant be opening up?
    Still waiting for Trump to cut energy and gas prices by 50%
    I guess I will have to wait until summer for my heating bill go lower.
    MAGA! ROTFLMAO

    Like

  11. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    So, Jeff/Resurrected Hillbilly, you think the President sets prices?
    That explains a lot.
    “Don’t panic!”
    -cover of the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy

    Like

  12. fish Avatar
    fish

    Gavin Newsom wants California exempted from foreign tariffs. Can he do that?
    Gavin Newsom really wants California exempted from foreign tariffs to be president. Can he do that?
    I’m guessing ….no! He probably can’t do that.
    Local sacfishwrap.com….ask for it by name!

    Like

  13. fish Avatar
    fish

    Uh oh! Trouble in Progressive Paradise….,.

    POLL: AOC leads Schumer in primary matchup — by double digits…

    I imagine “Goofy Toofys” will be taken to the woodshed in time for Chuck to eke out another victory and so continue to destroy the nation!
    Maybe they can hold a barbecue to celebrate….. we can only hope that Chuck has learned to put the cheese on the already gilled side of the burger this time!
    https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/04/schumer-aoc-poll-primary-new-york-030621

    Like

  14. Resurrected Hillbilly Avatar
    Resurrected Hillbilly

    wow, sardine, your long term memory shot?
    Trump said he would slash prices in order to get your vote.
    You forgot already.
    Explains a lot.

    Like

  15. Resurrected Hillbilly Avatar
    Resurrected Hillbilly
  16. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    HAHA –
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/oil-prices-drop-to-lowest-levels-in-three-years/ar-AA1Cj811?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=2d16bdcbf6e647af95d96dfededdf554&ei=47
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-celebrates-a-major-win-as-jobs-report-blows-economists-expectations-out-of-the-water/ar-AA1CiXOW?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=2d16bdcbf6e647af95d96dfededdf554&ei=21
    Democrats should be cheering President Donald Trump as he approaches a record set by the 42nd president, Bill Clinton, but don’t hold your breath.
    Just the News reported Wednesday that Trump — through the work of the Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk — has cut so many federal jobs, the administration could break the record number of cuts set by Clinton during his eight years in the Oval Office.
    The Trump administration is set to surpass, after just a few months, what the Clinton administration did in two terms.
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-nears-record-held-by-democrats-golden-boy-but-you-won-t-hear-any-of-them-cheering/ar-AA1Cjv24?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=2d16bdcbf6e647af95d96dfededdf554&ei=56
    😉

    Like

  17. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Trump is on his way to a record that will never be surpassed and that’s crashing the economy twice. He had to be elected out of office in order to return and do it a second time. It took Biden to get things moving again in order to for Trump to have something to smash. Actually that three times in recent years that has happened. First Bush, then restored by Obama then Trump, restored by Biden and now Trump doing it a second time. Actually you can add Bush to the epic by destroying the strong economy that Clinton left,

    Like

  18. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Hey folks lets have a big one handed claping for the po ol ponytail of ignorance’s comic stylings with large dose of TDS.
    😉

    Like

  19. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So Don are you still a Trump supporter?

    Like

  20. Scott O Avatar

    “It took Biden to get things moving again”
    The economy has been tanking for over a year, Paul.
    The sugar high was wearing off and everyone had run their tab to the end.
    Business failures and layoffs have been mounting but the Biden admin kept lying about it.
    It’s going to get ugly and then the Dems might get back into power to try their old tricks and then ugly will start to look like the good old days.
    Of course there’s always the chance of a good old war to bail us out except it doesn’t work like that anymore.

    Like

  21. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Direct quote from Trump ”
    In August 2024, then-candidate former President Donald Trump delivered a press conference surrounded by packaged foods, meats, produce, condiments, milk and eggs and said:
    “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,”
    Why hasn’t this happened Don and Scenes?
    https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/28/economy/trump-inflation-price-promises/index.html

    Like

  22. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Scott
    Was the economy when Biden became President better or worse than the one he left Trump this year?

    Like

  23. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Raymond Emery | 04 April 2025 at 07:21 PM
    Why didn’t you guys win the last election Paul Raymond?

    Like

  24. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    So another instance of the ponytail of ignorance not reading links that spoke to the dropping prices and the cheaper oil will help cut down distribution costs but
    who on the left bothers with those pesky facts? Certainly not the po ol ponytail of ignorance. Just a putin party parrot.
    😉

    Like

  25. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So Don do you believe the economy has improved since Trump became President the second time?

    Like

  26. Scott O Avatar

    Paul – The Biden admin ran the economy down while piling up near record debt. They flooded the country with millions of illegals that have and will cost us hundreds of billions. They left a mess.
    I doubt our nation has the will to balance the budget and start paying off the debt.

    Like

  27. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED I SAY, NOT –
    (The Center Square) – California did not materially comply with the requirements for seven of the 22 federal programs the state auditor examined, including “pervasive” noncompliance in its unemployment benefits program, which could put essential federal funding at risk.
    “This report concludes that the State did not materially comply with certain requirements for seven of the 22 federal programs or clusters of programs (federal programs) MGO audited, including one program for which the noncompliance was pervasive,” wrote Deputy State Auditor Linus Li. “Additionally, although MGO concluded that the State materially complied with requirements for the remaining federal programs it audited, the State continues to experience certain deficiencies in its accounting and administrative practices that affect its internal controls over compliance with federal requirements.”
    😉

    Like

  28. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Scott
    Don, didn’t Trump run up nearly 8 trillion in debt during his 4 years as President?
    Here’s some detals:
    “The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.”
    https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

    Like

  29. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    ROFLOL @903
    😉

    Like

  30. Scott O Avatar

    Paul 9:03 – I’ve explained this to you several times and you apparently have zero capacity to understand reality.
    You hate Trump – beyond that, you have nothing.

    Like

  31. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    For the crack newsman aka the ponytail of ignorance –
    This Republican media mastery reflects a sophisticated understanding of our fractured attention economy. Trump, regardless of one’s opinion of him, demonstrates an intuitive grasp of narrative control through this relentless cadence of headlines. The approach prevents any single controversy from gaining critical mass while ensuring his administration retains the initiative in shaping public discourse.
    Democrats, meanwhile, cling to tactics better suited to an earlier political era. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently acknowledged this weakness when he admitted to New York Times’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro that the Democrats “neglected how the social media has become so much more important” — a stunning confession of digital mishap from one of the party’s most powerful figures.
    According to Schumer, Senate Democrats put Booker and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) in charge of social. That is some irony, because Booker’s marathon speech demonstrated the outdated approach of Democrats — a strategy from when extended floor speeches might dominate news coverage for days. In today’s digital media landscape, even the most impassioned oratory becomes yesterday’s news before the speaker has returned to their office.
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-booker-s-record-breaking-speech-proves-democrats-are-stuck-in-the-past/ar-AA1CjD52?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=3ada4879c6f84d83a07192fc1f7d75d0&ei=73
    😉

    Like

  32. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    For the sake of piling on –
    In general, Democrats have a “Democrats have a problem” problem.
    This is to be expected from a party suffering through a “major brand problem” and a “major image problem,” and whose favorability ratings have plunged to new lows, in part thanks to its “smug problem” and “media and communications problem.”
    “Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has had a working-class voter problem,” Representative Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, told Politico last week. “It started out as a white working-class voter problem,” Boyle said. “And it has, as I’ve long feared, spread. It is not just a white working-class issue. It has now spread to the Latino working class and African American working class.”
    So many problems! Where to begin? Perhaps last November. Since their election wipeout, Democrats have been engaged in—and subjected to—a free-for-all of problem-naming. It’s hard to know whom to believe, if anyone, about what the party’s biggest problem is—which itself is a problem (see the aforementioned “trust problem,” as well as the “credibility problem” and the “authenticity problem”).
    It can also be hard to keep track of all the problems. New interpretations and analyses are constantly being circulated (and regurgitated). Fresh polls and focus groups attempt to quantify the various problems, which include the party’s perception problem, Gen Z and young-bro problems, working-class and plutocrat problems, man problems, woman problems, and transgender problems.
    Here’s another problem: Problems are tedious. Talk about them endlessly, and people will start to avoid you at parties. It can foster self-loathing—and exacerbate the Democrats’ preexisting “big problem with its own voters.”
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/democrats-have-a-problem/ar-AA1Cic72?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=3ada4879c6f84d83a07192fc1f7d75d0&ei=117
    😉

    Like

  33. fish Avatar
    fish

    Don, didn’t Trump run up nearly 8 trillion in debt during his 4 years as President?
    Yeah….almost as much as President Brainstem did! But I do so often forget that debt run up by democrats doesn’t need to be accounted for because it’s the “right people” doing the money wasting.
    #senile

    Like

  34. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Lets hope so –
    Senate Republicans are looking to scrap a Biden-era rule that essentially allows Democrat-run California to impose an electric vehicle (EV) mandate across the United States.
    Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) proposed a resolution on Friday that would repeal California’s “Advanced Clean Cars II,” which Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed off on weeks before Trump’s second term, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported. The rule would ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles in California and 11 other states by 2035.
    https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2025/04/05/report-senate-republicans-look-to-axe-california-ev-mandate/
    😉

    Like

  35. scenes Avatar
    scenes

    “Yeah….almost as much as President Brainstem did! ”
    Oh well, they’re both just surfers riding the wave. Biden will be as famous as Gerald Ford soon enough.
    I think the real outcome from the current political situation will be generational. If you check out the astroturf anti-Trump sign wavers, they’re surprisingly old. Evidently there’s an entire cohort of the ageing who like them their men-in-dresses, bureaucracy, unlimited immigration just fine. Maybe it’s the last hurrah of the post-menopausal in politics.
    Whether Trump is able to skooch a bit of producing things of value back to the US remains to be seen. They have to act fast because the countervailing forces are amping up as we speak. Whether it’s more fun to be a bar musician than it is to put transmissions together on a line depends on the person, although you can expect there to be an uproar as more girl-jobs disappear. The alternative will be to borrow more and more money to keep county government as the largest local employer. The increasingly childless electorate will act in it’s own best interest so there is that.
    To be fair, we probably should have more of those non-organic ‘Town Halls’ just to let the old ladies exercise their voice volume, it keeps them off the street and in a safe venue. Dying small towns need activities for the elderly.

    Like

  36. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: scenes | 06 April 2025 at 07:43 AM
    “Yeah….almost as much as President Brainstem did! ”
    Oh well, they’re both just surfers riding the wave. Biden will be as famous as Gerald Ford soon enough.

    Always attempting to see if there is even a whit of critical thought inhabiting that soft addled head of his. I’m guessing not and had Hillary managed to keep the train of recent history on the preferred track (for certain groups) there wouldn’t have been a peep about debt and deficit spending from Paul Raymond.
    I get it I suppose….from his perspective, “just keep this party going as it has been until I check out”! If so he will have had about as good a life as he could have achieved given his abilities. No biological descendants to stick with the bill when he “Dine and Dashes” dirty hippy style out of this life! It’s all good!

    Like

  37. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Those words from fish are a joke considering he is an avid Trump supporter whose policies have nearly crashed the stock market. Fish has affirmed that he is a solid supporter of Trumps tariff plans that have got us to where we are today.
    “Stock market turmoil deepened on Friday, as China hit back at tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, raising the likelihood of an extended trade war and damage to the global economy.
    All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5%, with the S&P 500 dropping almost 6%, capping the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.
    Trump, who has vowed to remake the global trade order, dismissed concerns about the market shock, noting that the US labor market is strong. ”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx26v8x24w1o

    Like

  38. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Too bad for the po ol ponytail of ignorance and his ilk that the people like what he is doing –
    President Donald Trump’s job approval rating rose four points during Tariff Week, from 49 percent to 53 percent.
    Since March 7, Trump’s job approval from young voters between 18 and 29 jumped 13 points.
    Among Independents and Democrats, Trump enjoyed a six-point increase.
    Most telling, support from black voters jumped 17 points in a single week.
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/04/06/nolte-media-fail-trump-job-approval-rises-4-points-to-53/
    😉

    Like

  39. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Raymond Emery | 06 April 2025 at 12:51 PM
    I’ll take your non-rebuttal rebuttal as confirmation that when democrats waste trillions and push the debt into the stratosphere you don’t mind.

    Like

  40. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Do tell –
    Left-wing movie director Oliver Stone rips Democrats’ ‘lying’ Russiagate probe against Trump
    Stone: “I hate what they did with Russiagate, I really do”
    Left-wing movie director Oliver Stone slammed Democrats for weaponizing federal law enforcement and “lying” in their attempts to charge the president with Russian collusion during the 2016 election.
    Stone, meanwhile, applauded President Donald Trump for taking steps to find out what really happened, adding that he is “absolutely” right that the federal government has been weaponized to attack political opponents.
    “Russiagate – we paid for it,” Stone said. “I applaud [what Trump is doing], and I hate what they did with Russiagate, I really do. I think it’s – again, the lying, the lying, the lying, and selling that to the American people.”
    When asked if he felt Trump was right about there being weaponization of the federal government against conservatives, Stone responded: “There was.”
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-movie-director-oliver-stone-rips-democrats-lying-russiagate-probe-against-trump
    😉

    Like

  41. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Punchy just punches the other side.
    His side is united by the hate they share for folks like you.

    Like

  42. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So Gregory do you support Trumps tariff moves of the past week-yes or no.

    Like

  43. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Yes or no?
    Can’t do that, Punch. If countries come back like a number have already, to negotiate, then it may well be a positive move in the end.

    Like

  44. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Here’s the latest news Gregory
    “Dow futures fall 1,500 points Sunday as Trump tariff market rout escalates: Live updates”
    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/06/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

    Like

  45. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Yes, I read too, and cnbc isn’t an arbiter of truth here.
    I’d expect any story you’d post is designed to herd the masses.

    Like

  46. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Gregory
    Are you saying that it may not be true that Dow futures have fallen by 1,500 points today?

    Like

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