Monthly Archives: January 2026

ICE Over-reach

The latest sequel to the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter debacle comes to you live from snow-white Minnesota with a cast of lily-white performers.  Noticeable differences include the absence of burned down neighborhoods and the twist in the plot that includes the cop in this case actually getting it wrong.

Bottom line on the ICE Shooting, if the agent could have gotten out of the way, he should have gotten out of the way. In reality he was able to get out of the way because he did get out of the way, uninjured, so again, clearly his life was not in danger, he simply had to step aside, which he did while firing his weapon.  Had he simply let her go, at most, charges would have been violations or at a stretch, low level misdemeanors.  Instead she is dead.  Not obeying a lawful order to stop, or to get out of the car, or whatever, is not license to use deadly force.

The shoot was bad.

The hoopla of course, has much to do with the built-up frustration, and hostility as America repeatedly witnesses angry-middle-class housewives turn into urban-warriorettes, pretending to be righteously indignant in order to be the center of attention in their wine-club.  Virtue signaling from the rare-air of the upper-middle class mommies looking for something to do makes them Tic-Tok and X celebrities, validated from the comfort of their SUV’s.

While they may be easy to hate, that doesn’t sign their death warrant.

And here is the most troubling part.  We are all so over-loaded with the barrage of stories coming from the news-cycle; we tend to forget over time what has happened.  In eight weeks or so, this episode will be a distant memory, covered over with whatever the next story will be and in some small by-line buried in the newspapers or perhaps not even mentioned in the larger media machine, the family of the dead woman in Minnesota will be paid an undisclosed sum of money and no admissions of wrong-doing will be forthcoming and with that, we’re off to the next stop for our outrage machine to become re-engaged.

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Hegseth the Horrible

Peter Principle poster boy Pete Hegseth had reached the zenith of his intellectual career as a talking head for FOX.  His hawkish-military machismo persona, bravado and, brazen-pretty-boy face got the attention of our President.  If you haven’t noticed, good-looks ranks as high on Trump’s “must-have” list as actual credentials.  Now, as Secretary of War, Hegseth is in so far over his head that the US Navy can’t even save him.

The role of what was traditionally called the Secretary of Defense, (now War), was specifically meant to provide a clear demarcation between civilian management of the US armed forces and the fighting forces themselves.  According to the National Security Act of 1947,” “There shall be a Secretary of Defense, who shall be appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate: PROVIDED, That a person who has within ten years been on active duty as a commissioned officer in a Regular component of the armed services shall not be eligible for appointment as Secretary of Defense.”

Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy.

In 2018, eight years ago, the National Defense Strategy Commission said, “…civilian voices have been relatively muted on issues at the center of U.S. defense and national security policy, undermining the concept of civilian control…It is critical that DOD—and Congress—reverse the unhealthy trend in which decision-making is drifting away from civilian leaders on issues of national importance.”  The appointment of Hegseth does nothing except exacerbate this issue.

Hegseth is a bully.  He vented his spleen while addressing Generals and flag officers at Quantico marine base in September of 2025, in a tone many found condescending.  His sentiment remained me of someone who has had a chip on his shoulder for some time and now has discovered the opportunity to vent with impunity.  This is what the Center for Strategic & International Studies had to say about his remarks.  “Hegseth could not restrain himself from getting personal. He criticized Generals Mark Milley, Peter Chiarelli, and Frank Mackenzie by name, the latter two because of their association with the Afghanistan withdrawal; despite their having criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the operation. Belittling officers by name smacks of pettiness.”

And once again, Hegseth doesn’t disappoint with demonstrating just how petty one can get.  After Senator Kelly and five other congressmen issued a public statement suggesting that military personnel have a right to disobey an unlawful order, Pete went right to the internet and accused Senator Kelly of sedition and reckless misconduct, threatening to degrade his retirement allowance.  How clearly vindictive.  This is, in part what the statement from Kelly and the others said:

“Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution”. 

The words above are statements of FACT.  The words are TRUE and our soldiers need to know where that line is.  Equating the utterance of these statements with acts of sedition is preposterous.  While not saying so directly, it would seem that this statement might refer to the extrajudicial assaults and murders of alleged drug runners on the high seas being conducted by the military under Hegseth’s orders.

We are not at war.

Simply declaring certain boats in the Caribbean as “narco-terrorists” doesn’t magically create some kind of legal authority to blow them up.  Putting video all over television of US forces blasting boats out of the water and killing people every other day serves to harden the hearts of viewers and reduce the human element to the status of a video-game.  These boats were in international waters.  We have no legal authority over them.  We killed over 100 people without a clue as to who they were or how they found themselves in those situations.  Telling the American public that the boats are running drugs and coming to our shores is really quite a stretch.  Are we to take it all in and believe it as an article of faith?  Is the unrelenting mantra of “fentanyl is killing our kids” justification for anything and everything we do?  If we know all of that, why can’t we simply interdict these boats once they are in our jurisdiction?  Could it be that we needed a pretext to go after Maduro and overtake the Venezuelan oil supply?  Trump always has bigger plans.

Hegseth is a henchman, only better than those he pursues by virtue of his own sense of his virtue above yours.  Pete is the kind of guy that measures the mark of a man by how many pull-ups he can do, a warrior not a statesman, a useful idiot for the Trump agenda, and that agenda may have many highlights, good things and great outcomes, but at what a price when we begin to ignore the ends and means arguments in favor of just getting what we want.

While Lailah Gifty Akita, tells us that “A warrior walks alone in the dark.”   Henry Kissinger reminds us that, “It is imperative that the statesman bridges the gap between his nation’s experience and his vision.”

What the United States of America needs immediately, is that heretofore unacknowledged leader that can take us into the future with the balance, freedom, understanding and moral surety that God demands from a nation that sets the example for the rest of the world.  

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Realities of I.C.E for Dummies

Whether or not you are a Liberal or a Conservative, I think we can all agree that anyone who is a fugitive of justice, that is to say, someone who has already been arrested, arraigned, indicted, tried and convicted of a crime, is someone who should not be free in public, but should be incarcerated, according to the conditions of their sentencing.

Addressing the apprehension of these kinds of criminals is what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) officials are sworn to do.  Unlike the domestic police agencies, (i.e. Police departments, sheriff-agencies, the State Police etc.) ICE agents concentrate on non-citizens.  Estimates of between 11 and 14 million represent the number of illegal aliens scattering throughout the USA.  Reports state that well over 2-million of these illegal aliens have deportation orders and or pending criminal charges or convictions.

If you are an illegal alien with a deportation order, (issued by a Federal court), or you are a fugitive from justice, this qualifies you for arrest.  The agency that handles that is ICE.

Historically, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have worked together in the interest of justice.  How things have changed, (Olim numerari poteras, nunc non potes..)  When state and local policymakers created “sanctuary spaces” that shielded criminals from accountability and created an illegal reality.  Article 4, Clause 2 of the US Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, states that federal law supercedes state and local law and binds lower court judges to enforce that.  Clearly, states and local jurisdictions that declare themselves as “Sanctuary Spaces” are lawlessly acting against the supreme law of the land.  This disregard for the rules that govern us creates the tension and now bloodshed as ICE exercises their authority in order to enforce the law and protect American citizens.

When you advertise your status as a “sanctuary” you are inviting in those who need it.  Therefore it becomes the most likely place to go looking for criminals.  While doing their jobs, ICE officers are often assaulted and accosted by mobs, seeking to interfere with their duties.  This is where the arrests happen to people who otherwise might have gone unnoticed by ICE, had they not stuck their nose into someone else’s business.  Assaulting an ICE officer is a felony and, interfering in their investigative duties is obstructing justice, also a crime.

A quick check on recent arrests in Minneapolis shows a dozen men located and arrested for the following litany of charges, some 56 in total including:  Murder, rape, child-rape, sodomy of a child, kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and gang affiliation.  While trying to locate and arrest these scum-bags, others interfere and because of that, they are also arrested.

I’m curious how the Liberals explain away their pride in protecting these criminals?

We are still a nation of laws.  Sanctuary places and the people who support them are lawless thugs bent on anarchy and many more will be hurt and killed until they regain their senses and fight for change in a civil fashion, not by becoming a criminal.

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