Sunday, November 30, 2025

The Puppet Show That Ran America

The Puppet Show That Ran America


. . . The Damage America Can Repair  The cover-up created two types of harm. One type can be fixed. Agencies that grew comfortable steering policy without accountability can be rebuilt. A leader who speaks for himself can reshape systems that grew lazy under a silent executive.
"President Donald Trump understands the value of a chain of command and the importance of direct leadership. Trump's ability to reset expectations, because that part of the problem sits within his reach.
The Damage That Will Not Fade  "The second type of harm doesn't fade quickly. Trust broke as the public watched the White House defend a story that everyone knew was false, waving off concerns and hiding behind rehearsed responses.
"We live in a society that forgives mistakes when people own them and genuinely apologize. What we don't forgive is any deception spanning years.
"The embarrassment of watching a weakened figure stumble while his handlers yelled at critics carved a mark into the national memory; a mark that Americans will carry for a long time.
"Now, President Trump leads a country that still tries to shake off the humiliation of the staged presidency it survived." . . ."Finally, Manney gets to the names. The suspects operating Biden as a dummy president include:

  • Mike Donilon — longtime Biden adviser and senior advisor in the White House.
  • Steve Ricchetti — longtime political operative and Counselor to the President under Biden.
  • Bruce Reed — Deputy Chief of Staff (and, for a time, principal White House staffer), often described among the senior group directing policy behind the scenes.
  • Ron Klain — served as White House Chief of Staff from 2021 to 2023; many reports place him among the principal decision-makers, especially early on.
  • Neera Tanden — as Staff Secretary and Senior Adviser — handled domestic policy planning and information flow, giving her a role in shaping which ideas reached the president.

"These people exploited a frail man to expand their power, treating the presidency as a production instead of a responsibility." . . .

Democrats have repeatedly used violent rhetoric against former president: 'Time to put Trump in a bullseye'   . . . "Earlier this year, President Biden told donors in a private call that the media isn’t doing enough to scrutinize Trump and that it was "time to put Trump in the bulls-eye." Biden, after the first assassination attempt against Trump, acknowledged it was a "mistake" to use that term.

"Biden, along with VP Kamala Harris, have accused Trump of being a "threat to Democracy" on several occasions."

 Republicans: Biden's 'bullseye' comment partly to blame in Trump attack 

. . ." In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the specific reference to "Trump in a bullseye" less than a week before, has led some Republicans to place the burden of the shooting in part on Mr Biden.

"Joe Biden sent the orders," Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins posted on X, formerly Twitter, in a response to a post about Mr Biden's comments to donors." . . .

From Fang Fang to the Governor’s Race: The Swalwell Saga

 David Manney  

"On a television show befitting his station — a place fit for comedy, not competence — Eric Swalwell kicked off his run for governor of California on Jimmy Kimmel's show, where even the lighting seemed as though it was designed to soften a punchline."

"The Duke of Flatulence"

. . . "Fang Fang Never Left the Room

"Swalwell's past relationship with Christine Fang, alias Fang Fang, continues to dog him into every new chapter.

"Although no charges ever stuck, the imagery remains: A member of Congress linked to a woman accused of being a Chinese intelligence asset now seeks control of the largest state economy in America.

"California is always on guard from direct threats from foreign influence aimed at Silicon Valley and defense contractors. A gubernatorial candidate can't afford associations with judgment and vulnerabilities. Fang Fang’s Former Fool acts differently than other candidates for any political office, using the confidence of someone who could trip over a wireless signal." . . .

. . . "If you're a resident of California, can you afford to gamble on a man whose career highlights include a Chinese spy scandal, the "pffttt!" heard around the world, and a streak of political predictions that aged as poorly as milk in the Mojave?

"A governor-elect, especially in a state circling in the water, needs steadiness, humility, and earned authority. Of the three characteristics, Swalwell delivers exactly none of the above.

"California deserves better candidates than the Human Error Message, a man still trying to outrun a breeze."

"Over time, patterns form: speak loudly, miss wildly, move on without accountability. California already deals with enough politicians who offer certainty without results. Even though they vote those people into office, they deserve better than reruns of recycled cable news theatrics."


A Disney Star Accidentally Reminds Everyone That Leftist Claims of 'Racism' Are Just a Grift


RedState
 I think maybe even he knows that, and that’s why he’s trying to fall back on nebulous accusations of racism to apply socio-political pressure to get work instead of letting his work speak for itself.  

 "One of the reasons you'll never see racism disappear from America is that it's far too lucrative. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, and every other race-baiter would abhor the day that racism truly became a thing of the past because it would mean a great deal of their power and influence would go with it. The tree of "racial tensions" must be refreshed from time to time with the nebulous misfortune of minorities and finger-pointing. 

"For a long while, a person could just utter the word "racism," and politicians, corporations, media figures, and more would suddenly spring into action to prove that they weren't racists, and they would finger-wag at everyone else for added measure. Social justice became a very useful tool for the left, and DEI was born out of that fear of being seen as bigoted. 

And because it worked so well and controlled society for so long, some people still do their best to claim victimhood based on their skin color to get what they want. 

"Take, for instance, Asian actor Simu Liu. You may know him from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Crazy Rich Asians, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, all of which were movies that did well. 

"But it looks like Liu needs more work, because he took to Threads to complain about the lack of Asian representation in Hollywood: 

put some asians in literally anything right now. the amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is f**king appalling.

studios think we’re “risky”. minari farewell past lives everything everywhere crazy rich shang chi. every single one a financial success. no asian actor has ever lost a studio even close to 100 million dollars but a white dude will lose 200 million TWICE and roll right into the next tentpole lead.

we’re fighting a deeply prejudiced system. and most days it SUCKS. . . .

More...

Exposed: Newsom's Burn-It-Out Policy Behind LA Firestorm

 RedState   

"In a sane system, authorities would have listened to the people trained and experienced in dealing with these situations. But that's not what happened here."

"Events leading up to the notorious Pacific Palisades fire in California are still being uncovered. In the latest such case, we learn now that there is a direct link between the administration of California Governor Gavin Newsom and the events leading up to that catastrophic fire.

Eleven months after the Palisades Fire destroyed thousands of Los Angeles homes, we may finally have the smoking gun linking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to the deadly blaze.

A newly discovered “Wildfire Management Plan,” quietly issued by California State Parks just weeks before the Jan. 7 wildfire, states Newsom’s policy bluntly: “Unless specified otherwise, State Parks prefers to let Topanga State Park burn in a wildfire event” — disregarding the park’s proximity to residential neighborhoods.

The document, prepared in December 2024, was unearthed this week through legal discovery in a civil lawsuit against the state.

Attorney Alexander “Trey” Robinson, who represents thousands of Pacific Palisades residents, says the manual outlines new procedures for fire management.

Those procedures could have barred local firefighters from fully extinguishing an earlier blaze that later re-ignited in high winds. 

"The document also lays out exactly how the Lachman fire led to the destructive Pacific Palisades blaze, and it's a revelation, one in which we learn that firefighters were actually ordered to leave the scene of the Lachman fire despite their warnings that there were still hotspots smoldering underground." . . . More...

Read More: LAFD Whistleblowers Destroy Official Narrative on Palisades Fire Cause

Was LA Mayor Karen Bass Just Caught in a Lie About Pacific Palisades Fire Rebuild?

Ward Clark hails from Alaska’s Susitna Valley, where he maintains his rural household in one of America’s last free places.  Ward is a twelve-year veteran of the U.S. Army, including service in Operation Desert Storm and (in Germany in support of) Operation Joint Endeavor, and today is a staunch minarchist libertarian, along with being an author, novelist, self-employed small businessman, woods bum, and semi-professional bad influence.

November 28, 2025 Amy Klobuchar Holds Embarrassing Demonstration of Confirmation Bias in Attack that Goes Wildly Wrong

 Jonathan Turley  "In academia, one of the greatest concerns with statistical studies is the danger of “confirmation bias” or “myside bias.” A desire to prove a point can lead to a blindness to opposing data or information. This week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) repeatedly demonstrated the scourge of statistical studies with spectacular and embarrassing success.

"Klobuchar released a chart before Thanksgiving to blame President Donald Trump for rising consumer costs. The only problem is that the chart showed that the skyrocketing costs occurred under former President Joe Biden. Klobuchar focused on the short period on the chart representing Trump’s second presidency, while ignoring the soaring costs under his predecessor.

"What is most notable is that just the week before, Klobuchar committed the same error, associating rising energy costs with Trump, who saw energy costs soar under Biden. The response was withering:" . . .  Read the main content here...


 . . "For Klobuchar, the charts proved an absolute face planting. However, in our largely siloed news market, many citizens will receive such claims without seriously reviewing the underlying chart or data.
" 'The irony is that, for those who did review the data, the claim only resulted in highlighting the countervailing message put out by the White House.
" 'That is the pesky problem with trend charts. As Adlai Stevenson noted, “we can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.” That “path” was clearly laid out, and then ignored, by Sen. Klobuchar.' "

America’s Islamo-Socialists demand Jewish deaths and Gazan supremacy...in America

Andrea Widburg  When will be the next assassination try on this President? TD

"While there is a very unpleasant surge of antisemitism on the flank of the Republican Party (i.e., Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, etc.), antisemitism lies at the very heart of the Democrat party."


. . . "The good news is that President Trump’s administration got Northwestern University to pay a $75 million fine and back off on the rampant antisemitism on the campus since Gazans invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, slaughtering over 1,200 people, most of them civilians. The bad news is that this hasn’t stopped America’s Democrat Muslim activists, from Rep. Rashida Tlaib on down, from becoming ever more strident in their support for Hamas and their desire for a Jewish genocide."" . . .

. . . " 'In Congress, as Exhibit A, we have Rashida Tlaib. In a video from September taken at the People’s Conference for Palestine, she used crude obscenities to tell her audience that America is a miserable, hate-filled nation, that they need to take to the streets, and that Gaza (which has as its charter the genocide of the Jewish nation) should be America’s moral compass:

"Keep in mind, as she talks about overthrowing the government and remaking it in Hamas’s image, that Tlaib sits at the heart of the American government. After all, she is an elected representative in Congress and one of the most recognized figures in the Democrat party. She is an Islamic Jacobin, working to destroy our nation’s institutions from within.

"Tlaib, however, is subtle compared to Nidal Jboor, another speaker at the same conference, who openly called for his co-religionists to slaughter Jews wherever they can be found across the world: . . ."

My fear of Tlaib and Mamdani et al is second to my fear of those who put them into office. TD

           “We all know who they are, whether they are in Israel, Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe. They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized to save children, to save humanity.”

 For all you who wear designer scarves and fill  the streets with your anti Jewish anger, remember this: Many are willing to murder their own children. The Tunnel Dweller

. . . "Although I didn’t write about it at the time, it also seems that the most psychotic were liberal white women, something we’ve seen in a variety of ‘social justice’ contexts. Although I did not know who she was until very recently, one of the offenders allegedly was a documentary filmmaker and recent Canadian university grad named Jessie Fairbanks.

Dangerous Psychotic Women For Palestine: “Do the world a favor and f*cking kill yourself, slit your throat!”  

  "What's really striking is how many of these violent demonstrators and kidnapped poster destroyers are young women, seems like a significant majority https://t.co/nT0EM3hqta"   — William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) November 9, 2023

Afterthought:  . . . "Speaking of bears and unhinged women, recent polling indicates modern women would rather be alone with a bear than a man.

"Man-hating feminism produced the latest generations of vulgar, aggressive, masculine women.

"Young men are dropping out of the dating scene in droves. When attention-seeking women complain, men tell them, “you chose the bear'.” . . .

The Burning of Bethany Magee; What one more horrific attack reveals about violence, failure, and our fraying social compact.

 The American Spectator

"Duffy noted that Reed had 72 prior arrests and wrote on X: "This would never have happened if this thug had been behind bars. Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the streets. Chicago’s carelessness is putting the American people at risk. No one should ever have to fear for their life on the subway.' "  Newsweek

"I’m haunted by what happened to Bethany MaGee. Haunted by how, in the midst of something as ordinary as a subway journey, she found herself doused with gasoline and set ablaze. Haunted that she’s now in a burn unit fighting for her life. Haunted at the thought that, even if she survives, she’ll likely be scarred for life, not simply from the burns themselves, but from the emotional trauma. 

"Haunted, and also deeply, bitterly outraged. I recently wrote about the murders of Iryna Zarutska and Logan Federico, young women, like Bethany, attacked by strangers in moments when they should have been safe and secure. Writing that article, I wanted to conclude by saying “never again,” and yet I couldn’t. Not because the message didn’t need saying, but because I knew, deep down, that “never again” was tempting fate.

"And so it has come to pass. Yet another innocent young woman horrifically attacked. Yet again attacked by someone who should never have been out on the street to do the attacking, someone who’d been arrested over and over again, and yet spat back out by a system unwilling to confront the fact that some people simply cannot be allowed to share space with the rest of society. Yet another failure of our mental health care system, but above all, of our justice system. 

"When I wrote of Iryna and Logan, I wrote, despairingly, of the need for young women to arm themselves along with all the other vulnerable members of society, the elderly, the disabled, and anyone else lacking the physical wherewithal of a Chuck Norris or a Jacky Chan. I evoked the message of Chicago’s favorite liberal columnist, Mike Royko, who, decades ago, in response to a similar horror, turned away from his anti-gun ideology and counseled young women to arm themselves. 

"Frankly, both then and now, this represents the counsel of despair. Make no mistake — in the present moment I would very much prefer to see armed women to dead or dying ones. And I agree with the point made long ago by Royko, that having a woman blow away her attacker would have a salutary effect on the problem. It would eliminate one predator, and it might serve as a deterrent to others. It might also encourage progressive judges, the kinds who seem hell-bent on returning predators to the streets, to perhaps explore some other options, if only to protect their “pets,” the violent criminals who they few as unfortunate victims of the “system.”

"But I entertain no illusions on this score. The necessary training and the constant situational awareness and the stress of cycling between self-defense guru Jeff Cooper’s “Condition Yellow” and “Condition Orange” represents a burden no honest citizen should be expected to maintain on a daily basis. In our current cultural climate, a successful act of self-defense would likely bring down the harpies of victimhood on the side of the dead attacker, not the woman who defended herself. Worst of all, for any normal person, taking a life, even as an act of self-defense, almost always carries a lifelong burden all its own.". . .

What happened to Bethany MaGee? Riley Gaines demands arrest of judges who freed suspect Lawrence Reed with 72 prior arrests   

"They would rather sacrifice more American lives before ever admitting their failed policies caused her death They will never confront the extremism that led to an American hero being murdered."

Here's What's Really 'Unholy' About Chicago's Brandon Johnson 

"As part of his efforts to end such "racist" and "unholy" practices in his city, Johnson also did away with the ShotSpotter program in September 2024 — despite pleas and warnings from aldermen, victims' advocates, and community members."

. . . "Back before Johnson pulled the plug on ShotSpotter, Alderman Silvana Tabares issued a stark warning. "Starting tonight, every gunshot victim left bleeding in the streets of our city will be a worthy sacrifice in the eyes of the mayor for his radical agenda. Every single one.” 

Infomercial Towel Merchant 'The Sham-Wow Guy': the New Anti-Woke GOP Candidate for 31st District in TX ?

 RedState   

"What Offer needs to do is get to work selling himself with the same vigor as his product lines, convincing people to stop having boring votes and stop having boring politics. "


"The fortunes of the Texas Republican Party may rest in the hands of an infamous late-night TV infomercial salesman. It sounds like a ridiculous, preposterous political proposition – BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! If you act now, you can support the election prospects of the genius behind the chamois towel you never knew you needed.

"The news spilled during Thanksgiving that Vincent Shlomi filed for candidacy in District 31 in Texas for the U.S. House of Representatives. To clean things up a bit, Shlomi goes by the name Vince Offer, but you probably know him by the more generic label – The Sham Wow Guy. 

"Mr. Offer was a staple of late-night television for a few years, hawking his miracle towels, said to hold 20 times their weight in fluids, serving as an all-purpose drying and cleaning product. The success was enough to see Vince later branching out with another household gadget, the Slap Chop. This was a small spring-activated countertop slicer.

"Offer had been off the radar for some time, as he attempted to carve his way into Hollywood. He was the creative force behind a pair of dismal, gutter-level comedies that ended up going nowhere. His second offering, “In APPropriate Comedy,” somehow had a bevy of known stars, like Lindsay Lohan, Adrien Brody, and Rob Schneider. 

"But now Offer is back, and he wants to join in on the GOP power base today." . . .

Mississippi 'miracle' catapults 4th-grade reading scores from bottom into top 10 by getting back to phonics

Joseph MacKinnon  "Mississippi has a winning approach to childhood literacy that other jurisdictions might want to adopt."

The U.S. Department of Education noted, "Mississippi’s literacy climb may be called 'miracle,' but it's really smart, local innovation at work."


"In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th out of the 50 U.S. states in grade four reading achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — the largest continuing national assessment of American students' knowledge and capability in math, reading, science, and writing.
"In what has repeatedly been dubbed a "miracle," the state made its way up the list — to 29th in 2019 and then 10 spots higher to ninth place nationally for reading scores last year.
" 'According to the NAEP, black students in Mississippi ranked third nationally last year among their cohort for reading and math scores; Hispanic students in the state ranked first in the nation for reading and second for math scores; and poor students in the Magnolia State ranked first for reading and second for math scores nationally.
"While there have been numerous attempts to explain Mississippi's success, it appears the "Mississippi miracle" is attributable ultimately to the state's 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which conservative commentator Rich Lowry recently noted effectively came down to adopting phonics and setting high standards for students.
"Noah Spencer, a researcher at the University of Toronto's economics department, analyzed the impact of the LBPA — the three pillars of which are improving teaching, identifying and helping kids with reading deficiencies, and holding back third-graders who can't hack it on an end-of-year reading assessment — in a study published last year in the Economics of Education Review. Spencer found that:
the policy, which included investments in teacher training and coaching, early screening for and targeted assistance to struggling readers, and retention for deficient readers, increased both grade 4 reading and math test scores on a national assessment by 0.14 and 0.18 [standard deviations], respectively, for students with any amount of exposure to the policy, and by 0.23 and 0.29 SDs for students with K-3 exposure to the policy.
"Spencer stressed the significance of these increases, citing previous research that found "that 'children with test scores that are one standard deviation higher at age 12 report 1-2 more years of schooling by age 22' in the lower- and middle-income countries they study." . . .

Jimmy Stewart - America's Most Famous Bomber Pilot?

 Brig. Gen. James M. Stewart; National Museum of the United States Air Force

. . ."He began flying combat missions and on March 31, 1944, was appointed Operations Officer of the 453rd Bomb Group and, subsequently, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Combat wing, 2nd Air Division of the 8th Air Force. Stewart ended the war with 20 combat missions. He remained in the USAF Reserve and was promoted to brigadier general on July 23, 1959. He retired on May 31, 1968." . . .