I must admit that there are times when I feel like I live in an alternative universe, where my basic core beliefs are outside of the norm and that people, especially government officials seem determined to make life as miserable as possible. Here is one example:

On December 1^st, 2025, New York decided to not honor ICE detainers on prisoners already in New York jails. As a result, they released 6,947 criminal illegal aliens onto the streets of New York. They were all gone by January 20. The known crimes these individuals have committed include:

• Twenty-nine homicides
• Two-five hundred assaults
• One-hundred ninety-nice burglaries
• Three-hundred five robberies
• Three-hundred ninety-two dangerous drug offenses
• Three hundred weapons offenses
• Two-hundred and seven sexual predatory offenses

Another who is still in custody, is Roman Amatitla, an illegal from Mexico who is charged with arson and eight counts of second-degree murder. Four individuals were killed, including a 3-year-old girl, when he allegedly set fire to an apartment building. Despite ICE’s efforts, the New York Department of Corrections has vowed to not co-operate with ICE and will not provide updates to ICE if he is ever released.

Given that career criminals commit anywhere between 50 to 100 crimes for everyone they are charged, the total numbers are pretty scary.

As I look at that list, I am trying to understand how New York officials could believe that releasing these individuals will make life better, easier, or safer for anyone, be they resident or visitor. How exactly does releasing these criminals who prey overwhelmingly on minority communities both legal and illegal, fulfill the oaths of office which include upholding the laws of New York? Do they honestly believe that honoring the ICE detainers will harm these career criminals? And what about the lives of those who work, abide by the rules, and pay taxes? All those people try to create a good life. Do they really need the government to create barriers to their future wellness and happiness?

In the end, we must ask if such actions serve the public or only the ideology of career politicians who live in a world very different from the average citizen. Or, to put it another way, it would be nice to see our public officials put the needs and concerns of citizens before the feelings of foreign nationals who prey on U.S. citizens.

Near the end of World War 1as the war was lost, the Imperial German Naval leaders created a plan for the entire Imperial navy to said out to seek a final, apocalyptic battle with the British fleet. It was to be apocalyptic in that the German admirals knew they could not win such a battle, but the defeat of the Imperial navy would save the “honor” of the Imperial navy. Fortunately, the crew of the fleet got wind of the proposed battle and mutinied thus not only stopping the battle but also acted as the spark which ended up forcing the Kaiser to step down from his throne and go into exile.

Let’s have some fun and bring the story above up to date and replace the players. For the German admirals with the mad plan, let’s have the state assemblies of the United States who are constantly thinking up new taxes. For the crew of the fleet, we shall use the citizens of those states. In our little scenario, the assemblies of many states decide to institute a state income tax and a surtax on the “wealthy” all in the name of equity but in reality, to collect more taxes for the ever-growing largess of the states. Next, we examine the effects of higher taxes.

The results are truly amazing and glaring and include the following points which are only a sample of the changes:

1. Eleven states have instituted income taxes since 1960.  These states are West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Jersy and Connecticut. While as late as 1970 these states accounted for about one third of national production, they now only provide about one fifth of national production.
2. The taxes of those states are aimed not only at the “wealthy”, but also at the middle class. In California for example, the”9.3% income tax rate starts at an income of $72,724 which is less than the median income in the state for a single earner ($76,190)”.
3. In a failed attempt to battle homelessness and fund universal pre-school, Portland’s Multnomah county placed surtaxes on those who are already paying the states 9.3% top tax rate (for singles, $125,000), which is the average salary of a Portland police officer. Since then, homelessness has increased and employment has declined.
4. On the other hand, low tax states have been welcoming hundreds of thousands of new residents fleeing the high tax states. Major corporations such as Tesla, Chevron, Oracle and others have moved to these states and as a result, these states report strong growth rates, such as Texas (10%), Florida (8.5%), Alabama (4.3%, etc., while New York reports a growth rate of -1.3%, Oregon of -3%, California -1.2%.

Like the common sailors of the Imperial fleet, the average citizens of high tax states have taken themselves out of harms way. With each citizen that leaves a high tax state, that state comes perilously close to entering a death spiral. Each productive citizen takes his or her expertise and tax dollars with them, leaving behind those lower on the productivity ladder and even those who depend on the largess of the state which will refuse to learn the lessons of their actions. Most likely, rather than correcting the error of their ways, they will double down on raising taxes which will only lead to an increased scramble for the exit doors.

Sources: The Growing State Tax and Jobs Divide, WSJ, A14, 4/15/2926 and How to Hollow Out Your State’s Economy, WSJ, A13, 3/18/2026

DOGE is not dead; it is still active and uncovering billions of dollars of fraud. It is doing it quietly, but it is strongly opposed by the legacy media, such as the New York Times and the real hidden state, the Federal bureaucracy.

The article attached to the link below discusses some of the fraud, inefficiency and push back that any group or individual faces when trying to look into the way your tax dollars are spent. Let’s face it: there are those in the employ of the Federal government who have a vested interest in not rooting out inefficiency, in not caring if there is fraud and who will resist any attempt at proper management.

We need to remember, however, that the type of waste that DOGE is finding exists in every government, be it at the state or local level as well as at the international level.  Keep this article in mind the next time a bond issue comes up for a vote and the government tries to convince you that taking more of your money will make life better for you.

What the Hell Happened to DOGE? – The American Mind

The attached link takes you to an interview with Sam Corcos, former DOGE employee, and current Chief Information Officer for the Treasury Department. I bet you did not know that DOGE is still alive and well, fighting the good fight against the bureaucratic deep state and often, poor management throughout the Federal government, 

That there is a huge amount of fraud in the largess handed out by the Federal government is no secret. Estimates put as much as twenty percent of Medicare is fraudulent, and fraud can be found in every section of the government. The real question is “how is it allowed to happen”? Is there a lack of checks and balances? Does anyone care in bureaucracy about fraud? Do not forget, if there are serious successes in catching fraud, the government may not need so many bureaucrats. What tools are available to eliminate fraud (you know, like common sense)?

With the fraud uncovered in Minnesota, California, and other states, it may seem that the only people not involved in fraudulent activity are the U.S. taxpayers. Regardless of your political leanings, we all have a personal stake in making sure that funds are available for real problems and are not syphoned off by criminals. After all, it is your money about which we are talking.

https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-the-hell-happened-to-doge/?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9B4kFn1fTBZHUgDEIynU0QgyQKe9pP19nzrNiRTSfFNNe9qQYpE1qxjAdYE-8m9Ndd-6_mKJO06XD8RgiJVy0SSAC-dA&_hsmi=409858060

Catherine Austin Fitts has had an exceptional career. From being the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under George H. Bush, to starting up her own investment brokerage firm and managing a five-hundred-billion-dollar investment portfolio, she is an internationally recognized investment banker.

After years of research, she has raised significant questions about the government’s handling of money, claiming that over twenty-one trillion dollars is unaccounted for and has been siphoned off by various agencies to fund international operations, both military and non-military “off the books.”  She claims these actions are detrimental to the well-being of the public.

The interview with Fitts by Tucker Carlson is amazing in the breath of topics covered and the information provided to the general public. One key area is her concern about the push by governments towards the elimination of a cash economy. Such a move will all but eliminate the mobility and freedom we have today as it will be easy for any government to simply freeze anyone out of the economy. Think back to the action by the Canadian government during the truckers strikes during Covid. By the “flip of a switch,” the Canadian government made sure the protesting truckers lost access to their funds in banks, use of credit cards: they could not get gas, purchase food, etc. That is the end result of the elimination of a cash economy.

In this case, Mr. Carlson wisely allows Fitts to do the overwhelming majority of the talking as he is clearly dealing with an individual who is his superior intellectually.

Be sure to visit www.Solari.com, Fitt’s foundation/website for weekly news that very well may change your perspective on the world.

https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-catherine-fitts

The recent movie, Nuremberg, centers around two characters; Dr. Douglas Kelley, who spent many hours interviewing and interacting with the twenty-two defendants during the first Nuremberg trial and Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring.

Dr. Kelley in 1945 was 35 years old at the time of his work at Nuremberg, upon which the movie is based. He was a U.S. Army psychiatrist with an excellent reputation. His goal was to understand the mind set of the defendants in terms of how they viewed the war crimes they faced and how they could participate in the conducting of those terrible crimes. He interacted with those individuals for only one month, but that month changed his life forever. After those interviews, he gradually became more introverted, subject to flare ups of anger, and more argumentative. His career which held so much promise became short-circuited as he disagreed with fellow doctors and administrators; he was no longer invited for interviews; his scholarly papers were ignored and not published and he became a pariah. In 1958, he died by suicide.

What was it that changed the course of Kelley’s life? It was that month when he spoke with the twenty-two defendants and found a secret that he believed was totally opposed to the image that most people had of those defendants. It is a secret that has haunted generations as they studied the horrors of the Third Reich.

Dr. Kelley concluded, contrary to popular opinion, that the defendants were ordinary individuals; some brighter than others, some more vain, but all profoundly human. They were not devils or demons, they were not mad; in most cases they could be your next store neighbors until the right conditions were created. Dr. Kelley believed that it was not madness that enabled those men to participate in such crimes, but rather from a moral decay disguised as duty. We must remember that numerous commanders of the Nazi killing squads (the Einsatzgruppen) were medical and legal doctors and others possessing the finest intellectual educations in their fields. In their minds, their “work” was noble and ridding the earth of unhealthy and deadly enemies of their race.

In this book, 22 Cells, he saw that the “gradual process of moral desensitization, in which obedience and ambition eroded empathy” enabled those men (and so many others), to commit war crimes on a scale previously unknown. His belief in that process led him to believe that in any society, if the conditions were right, those actions could be repeated and that knowing that society had to take steps to safeguard such a recurrence. Naturally, such a view was not very popular in the victor nations who saw themselves as being not only the physical but also the moral victors of the war.

Long before Hannah Arendt went public with the phrase, the banality of evil, Dr. Kelley had spoken that way of what he had learned in Nuremberg. Like Kelley, Arendt paid a price using that phrase, yet there has never been any evidence to the truth of those words. They paid the price for staring into the darkest portion of the human mind. Will we learn from what they found? Try asking the average teenager of today who fought who in World War II. Ask them who fought in our Civil War. Some may say that Nazi Germany was an aberration, a fluke of history. If that is to be believed, what about the Armenian genocide, the Ukraine famine of the 1930’s, the intentional famine in China under Mao, the muti-year war in the Congo, the slaughter in Rwanda. Need I go on? Their ignorance is not their fault, but someone will have to pay the price for that ignorance. Perhaps not in this decade, perhaps not in the next, but there is always a price to pay for such ignorance.

There can be no finer example of the banality of evil than the book written by the commandant of Auschwitz and one of the greatest mass murders in history, Rudolph Hoss. Written while awaiting trial, he does not attempt to deflect blame or plead some sort of extraordinary circumstances for his actions. Instead, he paints a picture of a very bland, ordinary man simply doing his duty as he was ordered. A good family man, loving father, his main concern was to please his superiors everyday. He was the perfect face of the banality of evil.

For further reading, please consider The Nazi Conscience by Claudia Koonz, The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, The Mind Doctor of Nuremberg by Kendrick D. Erasmus, and Marriage & Fatherhood in the Nazi SS by Amy Carney, Death Dealer by Rudolph Hoss.

Numerous times over the past year ( e.g., Jan.2, Jan.23, Feb. 5, March 8, June 6, Oct. 10), I have written and posted articles concerning the disaster that is befalling much of the E.U., but especially Germany in its’ quest to go green. 

Tens of thousands of jobs lost, leading technical companies relocating, soaring energy prices, expanded welfare rolls, mounting national debt and decreasing individual liberty has been the reward for a decade of pie in the sky social and energy policies. Government leaders in western Europe are acting like teenagers who refuse to believe that tomorrow will never come and the bills they are creating will never come due.

The link below will take you to an article which provides facts and figures that should shock and dismay European leaders, yet somehow those leaders continue on a path of proven failure. While those same leaders express concern about the “American First” direction of President Trump, they have no qualms about continuing their, “Our Citizens Last” policies.

The nations of eastern Europe are on growth paths as they battle the bureaucrats of the E.U. Instead of asking how those nations are able to grow their economies without the flood of immigrants from third world “nations,” the E.U. like a spoiled child continues to stamp its’ feet and demand that those nations adhere to the E.U.’s failed policies.

Is there still time for nations such as Germany to change their course, reverse their belief in fairy tale economic and energy polices and play upon their traditional strengths to build a better future?

Please copy this link to the article: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/walpurgis-night-of-madness-germany-in-the-grip-of-climate-socialism/

It has been about a year and a half since I last visited London and from the news I have seen here in the States, I wanted to see what the mood in the city regarding their politics was, economy, immigration, etc. While having breakfast I was able to read several British papers and what particularly struck me were the first pages of The Daily Mail (12/19/2025), which has the highest circulation but is not considered to be on par with the Times of London (which is further to the Left in its reporting). So let me present three stories which I believe indicate where the U.K. is at currently:

1. Phillipson blocks safe spaces for women: Bridget Phillipson is the Women and Equalities Secretary (a position specifically aimed at protecting Women and bettering their lot).  In response to the recent decision by the High Court, she has released a statement that their recent ruling is “trans-exclusive” and refuses to release (enforce) them after the court ruling three months ago. The guideline was created after the British Supreme Court ruled that banned “transgender women-biological males-from women’s lavatories.  According to Ms. Phillipson, the court ruling would ban women from taking their infant sons into changing rooms and pools. She has already missed the deadline for presenting guidelines to Parliament. Apparently “woke” is alive and well in the U.K. and is defiance of the law of the land. Here is the woman who is charged with protecting women and she refuses to enforce the law which specifically protects women. Your government at work for your benefit?
2. British boys don’t need misogyny lessons-migrants do: The Labour government has decided that British school boys need to be taught about misogyny in response to a dramatic increase of violence against women. The goal is to reduce sexual violence by half within a decade.  The leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said that “if you tell boys that they are the problem, you don’t create respect, you create resentment, you create backlash…”. The current effort by Labour seems to have been based on a BBC TV drama Adolescence which tells the story of a 13-year-old-boy who was arrested on suspicion of murdering a female classmate. Ms. Badenoch has urged the Labour government to publish data on the nationality and immigration status of sexual offenders, which the government has refused to do. It is interesting that the “sexual grooming” which has plagued the U.K. for more than ten years and resulted in tens of thousands of female victims was due to be discussed openly in Parliament, but at the last moment the Labour government cancelled the discussion as it might upset Pakistani voters. Your government at work, protecting it’s citizens?
3. The Cost of Welfare: Projections are that one in eight Brits will be claiming disability benefits by 2030, up from the current one in ten. At the same time, new guidelines mean that by 2030, four million Brits will be on disability with absolutely no need to look for work or prove their sickness continues. The government claims that they are working on reforms which will save about two billion pounds (about $2.7 billion) in the next four years (hardly a brilliant success). This “savings” is part of the total cost of over one-hundred-ninety billion currently.

Those three stories from one day’s news show a nation with major problems. OK, every country has its’ problems and, on the whole, the attitude in Mayfair and the money sections of the city was positive.  It was great seeing and feeling the power that some of the young Brits had as they hit the pubs after work.  They were positive and you could feel their excitement.  Fantastic! On the other hand, from the taxi drivers to bar tenders to some everyday Brits, there were more cautious comments, ranging from “we are broke” to” there is no money”, to complaints of their National Health Service (need a cancer consultation? You get a lottery ticket-not kidding- and then the NHS tells you when your consultation will be; one person got a phone consultation in thirteen months’ time). Then there is the underlying problem of the migrants.  A local council was upset as a local building was being refurbished to house five-hundred immigrants, which was more than lived in the village. That same day over five hundred immigrants were caught coming over from France. The immigrants are coming faster than the government can build houses for them, when there is a housing shortage already for native Brits.

I have to admit, I love the U.K. and I am aware of how much has changed over the thirty plus years that I have been visiting.  Gone are the carts selling fruits having been replaced by falafel stands.  And East London?  It is a different country all together, and only time will tell what will happen. London is no different than any U.S. city; it is still safe unless you wander into a section that you know if trouble. Added to this is the current policy under the Labour government of thought control such as arresting an individual for silently praying in a public space, or the seventy-year-old Grandmother who was arrested for criticizing the local government on Facebook.  There is a feeling of national malaise in the air and the current government is holding on with every tool at it’s disposal.

The changes are plain to see and like the rest of Western Europe, the British government is stuck in doing the same things which have failed, hoping for a different result. Fortunately, at least the government is not locking up or shutting out rival political parties as we have seen in the EU.  If the Brits continue down their current failing road, I believe there is little hope for national renewal. It is a shame, as there is so much good to see that that wonderful land.

Much is being made of the Trump administration’s new national security strategy. In the thirty-three-page report, the administration seems to take aim at Europe, which is facing numerous serious challenges.  These include “civilization erasure” from high immigration as well as economic decline and actions by the EU which “undermine political liberty and sovereignty.”  This report echoes comments made by Vice President Vance in March when he spoke before the Munich Security Forum. Additionally, European leaders are criticized for standing in the way of a U.S. brokered end to the Ukraine war while they cannot supply the Ukrainians with the support it needs to continue the war. China and Europe need to “stand on its own feet” while Russia is not seen as a threat.

Controversial stuff to say the least but hardly anything new to anyone who has watched as Western Europe nations enabled little if any economic growth while neglecting their own defense. Additionally their lack of capital all but insures that the explosion in technology (especially AI), will leave Europe in the dust  Finally, unstable governments seem to take aim more at their citizens rights and liberties rather than address the huge welfare cost of millions of migrants who refuse to assimilate and want the goodies of the west but are a net loser to each nation.

Western Europe’s obsession with going “Green” has led to hugely inflated energy prices which in turn has led to a loss in manufacturing jobs and an inability to provide enough energy for the challenges of AI. In the U.K., about fifty percent of the cost of energy is to cover the production and delivery of domestic energy, while the other fifty percent is made up of taxes and levies to cover subsidies for renewables and system upgrades. With waiting times of up to a decade for new, reliable energy, Europe is seriously in danger of being left out of the AI movement. At the same time, much of the EU is still committed to shutting down reliable fossil energy production even though “green” energy continues to increase the cost of energy.

Along with the serious failures of green energy policies, the EU has committed to a five-percent budget for its own defense. The great question is where the Western Europeans plan to get the capital to fulfil their promise? Between the spiraling cost of welfare thanks to illegal immigrants, the lost of manufacturing jobs, ever increasing energy costs, an old and failing infrastructure and a failing public health system, Europe simply does not have enough capital to coverall all of its bases or promises.  German Chancellor has said that the German welfare system must be overhauled, but can it be done against the bureaucrats of the EU who are accountable to no one and who continue to believe in their starry dreams and economic genius?

Trump’s national security strategy may sound rough, but it should not be news to any European leaders. They know full well that they face serious problems but few in the West of Europe seem to be ready to break away from the “business as usual” mentality which has developed since the fall of the Soviet Union. Those few politicians who offer alternative ideas which appeal to a small but growing segment of the population are either outrightly banned from any coalition government, charged with various crimes or face being buried under verbal attacks which all but accuse them of being extremists beyond the pale. Hopefully, the Trump document will make more Western European leaders start to act like leaders and less like the politicians who got their countries into the fine mess they are today.

There is an old stereotype of a typical Southern Senator; he is a bit loose in his dressing, has a southern accent with a definite drawl and a mind like a steel trap. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana fills the bill perfectly. One of the most enjoyable ways to take a break during the day is to go to You Tube and view him questioning judicial nominees. He shuffles through papers pulling up quotes or writings of the nominees and he has a way of reading them that often makes the nominee look as foolish as possible. Try it.

His writes a book of stories; him growing up in a small village, his first political job, the step-by-step advancement and even the fact that it was only on his third run for the United States Senate that he achieved his goal. Then came the hard part: learning the real job of being a politician when you work in an atmosphere where many of your ninety-nine compatriots each believe that they are the burning bush before Moses. He learns but has a problem in that he, for some strange reason, seems to believe that honesty is the best policy. How quaint!

This short book of just over two hundred pages gives us a glimpse behind the curtain of life in the Senate. In the last chapter, “Speed Round,” he lays out clearly, with facts and logic his core set of political views. Transgenderism and women’s sports, China, crime, the media, and more are covered and it would be such fun to have an individual who disagrees with him, read and answer his beliefs on a one to one, face to face discussion.

This is a quick, easy to read book, but I believe you will come away respecting an individual who may not share your view or ideas of the world; that is if you can put up with honesty.