Oh my Goodness! Headlines in newspapers from one of our closest allies across the pond are just filleting DJT for his comments about Volodymyr Zelenskeyy. Remember my question yesterday of who would have more respect if a poll were done globally – Volodymyr or Donald? No question where the United Kingdom stands on that. The headlines read “‘Shameful’ Trump attack stuns world.” “Putin’s poodle: Orange Manbaby blames UKRAINE for being invaded.” “Trump appals world with ‘dictator’ blast at Zelensky.”

Not only are the Brit newspapers roasting the Donald, but even the conservative N.Y. Post newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch torched the Orange baby Jesus this morning with their front-page headline: “PRESIDENT TRUMP: THIS IS A DICTATOR,” with a full page photo of Vladimir Putin.

31 days into the new regime and already things ain’t lookin’ too good for the genius. Our allies aren’t happy with the direction the USA is headed and we are being seen as the dog that crapped on your carpet; the highly touted DOGE, rather than exhibiting governmental efficiency, has given us a front row display of how to perform a cluster f**k; MAGA’s are starting to realize they voted for a con man who has probably never cracked an egg in his life nor shopped in a grocery store; federal workers who voted for their boss are just shocked that they have been fired and wonder how they are going to put food on the table, pay their rent, and make that car payment; farmers who thought they were immune from any overhaul are now wondering what the hell just happened; law abiding citizens who are po’d seeing a bunch of felons walking out the prison gates with a big ol’ tRump smirk on their face, and; GOP Representatives getting loudly booed in deep-red Trump voting districts while trying to hold a Town Hall meeting. I’m glad popcorn is a healthy snack because I’m starting to eat alot of it. How about you?

After firing 1,000 National Park Service workers last Friday, dubbed the “Valentine’s Day massacre,” it looks like clearer heads have talked some sense into King Don’s head and he once again has backtracked after realizing what a stupid move that was. The National Park Service is one of the most popular agencies in the government and many of those fired were the day-to-day workers who make our National Parks the Crown Jewel they are. If you’re going to get rid of people to make the operation more efficient you get rid of the higher paid administrators who sit in their offices and do the white collar work, not the guys and gals who are at the park entrances letting you into the park, the ones who clean the bathrooms and do the maintenance requirements, the ones whose job it is to keep the parks safe or provide emergency services if someone is hurt in the park. These were the people who were let go. I give a shout out to Olek Chumura, a fired maintenance worker at Yosemite who went on his Instagram account to question whether he and his colleagues were examples of the wasteful spending that Trump and Musk claim to be trying to eliminate. “I make just over $40,000 a year; scrape s— off toilets with a putty knife nearly every day,” Chmura wrote. “Somehow, I’m the target.” He quickly became the poster child for the fired workers and was interviewed on just about every News station there is. I saw him being interviewed several times. He’s a guy that loves living in Yosemite to work, play, and keep the toilet seats clean. Conservative friends from Ohio, who have seen him on Instagram and TV, have reached out and said, “This is not what I voted for, this is … insane,” Chmura said.

Finally, last night the Canadians got the last laugh. After spouting off over the past few weeks about making Canada our 51st state and posting on X before last night’s championship hockey match in which the USA lost 3-2 in overtime, the Trumpster has been demoted to Premier of Canada’s new 11th Province. Justin Trudeau is basking in the big win. ‘And just like that, we welcome the former United States of America as our 11th province. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the metric system.’

And just like that I am going to close this rambling for the day. It’s Friday!! Have a great one!!!! Ziggyman

It looks like the final member of the kakistocracy has been added to the team with the confirmation of Kash Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The puppet team of Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi can now go to work for President Musk and King Trump to begin the retribution project. Now that Patel is in place, I’m guessing that he is in a deep state of thought as to who the King would like him to go after first. Will it be Joe Biden? How about Liz Cheney? We can’t forget Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, or Patel’s predecessor Christopher Wray. I find it so interesting that the GOP, the party that forever called themselves “the party for law and order,” has become more anti-law enforcement than the “woke lib’s” ever were. They see no problem pardoning 1,500 convicted felons, some of whom did great bodily harm to law enforcement members on January 6^th. The party that was the biggest defender of the FBI now brings in someone with no law enforcement experience to “clean up the mess at that department.” Even Trump’s last attorney general lackey, Bill Barr, said “someone with no background as an agent would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the bureau,” and when Trump in the first go-around thought about making Patel the Deputy Director of the FBI, Barr said “over my dead body.” I suspect that Patel will be calling on Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers who was pardoned by Trump from his 18 year sentence for insurrection, for advice on next steps in running the bureau.  So, there you have it my friends. Time to get the popcorn popper out, fire it up, load those kernels with extra butter and see where this all ends up.

I felt a little guilty in some of my previous posts referring to DJT as ‘The King,’ but feel much better now knowing that he calls himself King and the increasingly f***ed up White House, I guess, now calls him King Trump after posting this on the official White House X and Instagram accounts: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” –President Donald J. Trump. The White House has nothing better to do than create an AI generated Time magazine cover? You just can’t make this s**t up. If Obama or Biden had done something like this, there would be such an uproar that the Republican’s would be readying the impeachment trials.

I would like to see a poll asking the question to respondents worldwide, “Who do you have the most respect for? President of the U.S Donald Trump or President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.” DJT through out some crap yesterday that Zelenskyy only had a 4% approval rating in Ukraine. As of today, the latest polls showing the approval rating for Zelenskyy from Ukranians is 57%. The latest results from US residents for Donald’s ‘report card’ show an approval rating of 45%. Vladimir and Donald have been cozying up again putting together a disinformation campaign in their efforts to discredit President Zelenskyy during the US – Russia talks regarding the ‘stick it to Ukraine’ plan. I venture to guess that globally Donald would come out on the short end of the stick. Hey, Ziggyman, that’s a good one. That could be another polling. “Who do you think has the shortest stick, Volodymyr or Donald?”

I commented to the missus while we were shopping yesterday that I’m not seeing the price on grocery items going down like Donald said would happen in the first month of his new term. In fact, it appears that they are going in the opposite direction. Someone mentioned something similar to Don and what do you think his reply was? ‘It’s Biden’s fault. I had nothing to do with it.’ The cult believes him and will continue to use poor ol’ Joe for all of the ill’s of our society as long as King Don is in office. Today is Don’s first month in office and he still hasn’t cracked the egg problem.

Anyhoo, time to get off this computer and rest the eye. Go Blazers!! Ziggyman

Well, I was up at 5:00 am this morning to head down to the flatlands for my second cataract surgery, so I’m a little out of it. It went well and I’m back home beginning to ramble at you after my 3 hour nappy poo on doctor’s orders. Please forgive me if there are spelling errors in this post, as I’m a one-eyed typist for the day.

I’ll begin with a cost cutting suggestion for the Musk DOGE team that could save American taxpayers millions of dollars.  Prohibit the use of Air Force 1 to transport the PINA (President In Name Only) and his Beast to the Daytona 500 for a rallying lap around the track for a photo shoot before loading up again to head to Mar-a-Largo for a round of golf. If we are talking transparency in government expenditures, let’s publish the cost of the weekend jaunts to Florida to include the cost of fuel, crew, secret service costs for lodging and meals, room rental costs at M-Largo for the entourage. I don’t recall any other president traveling from D.C. every weekend to play somewhere. You know those costs will never be analyzed and published. Instead we get to see the indirect costs for the National Institute of Health research grants, which will be cut in the name of governmental efficiency. The indirect costs will be capped at 15%, which currently are averaging 27% resulting in decreased innovations and discovery of cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s; loss of jobs at many research institutions nationwide (like Oregon Health and Sciences University); closing of laboratories; reduction in workforce capacity; and a decline in the nation’s capacity to conduct research and compete globally. Indirect costs are grant expenses such as utilities, office space, back office support, biosafety and research safety. These expenses are necessary for research, just like jet fuel for Air Force 1 and maintenance on the Beast. I also should mention that while PINO was taking that joy ride around the track, there were severe storms and flooding, especially in Kentucky and Georgia, where 14 people died. Unfortunately, our Chief was too busy lapping and golfing to offer any statements related to this situation. Of course, with the governmental efficiency cuts to FEMA and other agencies that would normally  be providing assistance to these communities, they have basically been told ‘sorry you’re on your own. Fore!’

It has become increasingly clear to me that we are entering a new era of foreign relations where our previous partners and allies, namely Europe and Canada, are being replaced by Russia and North Korea. I hope the hypocritical MAGA patriots, whose fathers and grandfathers fought to keep America a constitutional Republic, are happy with what is happening right now and are secretly asking for forgiveness from their forefathers. When you have JD Vance disparaging our European allies and Pete Hegseth negotiating for Russia over Ukraine, then we are in deep doo-doo.

We are further down the doo-doo hole when we have the toddler-in-chief pronouncing

Does this declaration of being our national savior, therefore doesn’t have to worry about little things like laws when he is working his butt off to save us, cause you any concern? I should be concerned, but it’s just ‘the same s**t, different day’.

That’s it for today. Gotta rest the eye for awhile. Hope you have a great evening and can hardly wait for that alarm to go off in the morning so you can see what the chaos of the day will be. Oh, and be ready for your delivery of 2 rakes from our federal government with a letter from DJT ordering you to get out there and rake the forest floor so we don’t have any more wildfires. If only he had does this 2 months ago, California wouldn’t be in the situation they are now in. Ziggyman

Happy Saturday!! I hope y’all had a happy and romantic Valentine’s Day without feeling too overwhelmed by Week 4 of ‘you know what.’  I know that there were a lot of students and teachers jumping with joy after getting that anxiously awaited announcement on Thursday and Friday – “No School today due to inclement weather.” Hearing those words is as much fun as opening presents on Christmas morning. It’s a winter wonderland up here on the mountain. Thankfully, the roads are pretty clear of snow and ice right now. Our road was plowed twice yesterday by the County, the second one at 9:15 pm last night by a huge road grader type snowplow. We got as much snow overnight Thursday into Friday as Timberline Lodge did – over 12”.

Okay, moving on from the weather and romanticism, we shouldn’t be surprised by the amount of crap that is being thrown against the wall to see what will stick. In an earlier post, I wrote that the goal, in Steve Bannon’s words, is to “flood the zone with s**t,” and boy are they accomplishing the goal. There was so much of it this week I could hardly keep track of it. The actions taken by co-presidents Musk and Trump are already starting to create hardships for the ‘American Common Man.’ During the week thousands of federal government workers were fired by the DOGE team and their ally the PINO (President In Name Only). Probationary employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Education, U.S. Forest Service, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were fired this week. And, just last night I saw on the 5:00 News over 100 employees from the Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon are being fired. I’m sure glad I have a good wood stove and generator for when the lights and furnace go out. The report indicated that these employees were from very critical areas of the BPA. I saw many headlines this week that were basically “Trump’s mass layoffs leave federal employees baffled and angry.” Some of these tRumpsters are starting to see that they made a big mistake when they voted in November. One HR manager with the VA said that he voted for Trump in the last three presidential elections and “will never make that mistake again. I have not voted for a Democrat in two decades. I will vote Democrat in the midterms and the next presidential race for sure.”

The farmers in the Midwest are now flooding their farms with crocodile tears as they have suddenly realized that the $2 billion they received from USAID last year for their crops of corn, rice, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, vegetable oil and peas has been frozen by the Band of MuskRats. USAID purchased these crops from U.S. farmers to send overseas for foreign aid. Not only have the funds been frozen, but sadly half a billion dollars worth of food is currently at risk of spoilage at warehouses in the US awaiting shipment overseas. I guess these farmers are experiencing a WTF moment and it ain’t sitting well.

I must give a “shout out” to our Representative Maxine Dexter, who on Tuesday during a speech to federal workers, said, ”I’ve been told I have 30 seconds, so I am going to tell you that we do have to — I don’t swear in public very well — we have to F**k Trump.” Dr. Dexter then said, “Please don’t tell my children that I just said that.” I just wish the Democrats would quit tiptoeing around the ‘schtuff’ going on and model Rep. Dexter from the Great State of Oregon. The Dem’s need to start right now working on getting the working common man back into their good graces. Go Maxine!!

I understand that the DOGE geniuses put together a DOGE website this week as a vehicle to report all of the wonderful things they are doing. The website is on non- government servers that are not secure and loaded with errors. It was immediately hacked by some real experts. Yesterday, Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post reported , “The website states in tiny print at the bottom that its database excludes information from U.S. intelligence agencies. But an easy search shows that DOGE’s database provides details on the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal agency that designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites. Not only are NRO’s budgets and head counts classified, but the prospect of Musk’s tech team meddling in sensitive personnel information is setting off alarms for some in the intelligence community.”

Finally, what about that quid quo pro move by the Department of Justice to drop the corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This results in another example of Trump demanding loyalty by his lackeys over the rule of law. We did see some true examples of democratic principles, however, when the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than drop the corruption charges. Following her resignation, the acting assistant U.S. attorney from the same district, Hagan Scotten, resigned and sent a letter to the acting Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. ripping him a new one for this blatant action. Several other assistant U.S. attorneys followed him out the door with their own resignations. Both of the U.S. attorneys from NY were Trump-appointed Republicans. The crisis in DOJ is just beginning and will be one of many over the next few months.

So there you have it. We have p***ed off farmers and federal employees; assistant U.S. attorney’s saying “I Quit!”; members of the intelligence community wondering how much of their personal classified info has been distributed by the genius DOGE ‘experts’; but happy students and teachers enjoying two snow days. I hope y’all are having a happy day. Keep smilin’. Ziggyman

I’m beginning to ramble as I wait for an ADT technician to come do a required upgrade to our 27 year old alarm system. I have received emails and letters from them since early December telling me I need to contact them to schedule this upgrade or my alarm will not be operational. I have called them six times since December 11th and have received zero response until yesterday, when I had to go nuclear on them. I have an appointment scheduled between 1:00 and 5:00 pm today. It is now 2:55 pm and no one has shown up yet. My blood pressure medicine is working overtime.

I had a “Comment” to yesterday’s post from Superblycoral that is ‘spot on.’ If you didn’t see the comment, they wrote “I think we need to keep an eye on how Trump is going to sabotage next year’s midterms. It’s one of the only checks we have left on his power grab.” I would add that we also need to keep an eye on Musk, as he is smarter than Trump and has already said that he would finance the campaigns for GOP challengers of any GOP congress member not loyal to Trump. As a result, we have GOP senators and representatives afraid to do anything that would be considered disloyal and not in line with the Trump/Project 2025 playbook. In addition, we had Trump making that comment in January about Musk being a ‘voting machine genius,’ “He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.” There has been no evidence to connect Musk’s Starlink satellite system to the Dominion voting machines. I’m not being a conspiracy theorist here, but we have plenty of time before the midterm elections to have the DOGE teen-age engineers get assigned a new project by Musk related to voting machines.

Speaking of those lieutenants, how about the kid who was fired and then based on a tweet from JD, was rehired. This bigoted kid made the following statements in the past, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,””Normalize Indian hate.” JD Vance got into an X (formerly known as Twitter) p***ing match regarding this kid with California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who happens to be of Indian descent. Keep in mind that JD Vance’s wife is also of Indian descent and they have two children together. Wow, JD doesn’t have a problem with ‘normalizing Indian hate’ against his wife and children. Where are you going with this, Ziggyman? Where I’m going is that we have some very intelligent kid’s who worship Elon Musk, will do anything for him, and if given a technocratic project to screw with our election systems, they will be “foaming at the mouth’ with excitement.

Now back to Superblycoral. I absolutely agree that beginning right now the Democratic party needs to get their s**t together and put an aggressive midterm plan in operation. It’s time to take the gloves off and “fight fire with fire.” Unbelievably, Trump’s approval rating at this moment is the highest it’s ever been. The Dem’s need to be going on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Fox News, hang out at Billy Bob’s ‘watering hole,’ and keep hammering on the fact the person and party that was just elected is going to put you in deep hurt in the not too distant future. Billy Bob, “do you think your Social Security, Medicaid, welfare check, $1.99 per dozen eggs, under $7.00 per gallon gas, are guaranteed?” We need to hire James Carville to start this project.

Just had a call from the ADT technician. Long story. Gotta run. Have a great evening! Ziggyman

As I begin to ramble this afternoon, I have just come in from playing with the snow blower out in the driveways to clear them before the next storm coming on Thursday. I’m also happy to report that, when we got home Saturday afternoon from the beach house, I still had my satellite dish attached to the house so I was able to watch the Blazers (lose) and that boring Super Bowl game yesterday. I hope y’all enjoyed the Super Bowl and took advantage of that free “Hangover Burger” today from Carl’s Jr. You know,  the one that’s been hyped for the past month by that young lassie strutting down the sidewalk with her bosom uncontained by her whatever you call that bra-like thing. Anyhoo, hope the game didn’t cause you to drink in excess and you are enjoying this marvelous day. If you watched the game yesterday, it’s too bad that LIX was the last Super Bowl we will ever see again. I have it on good authority that next year it will be called The Trump MAGA Bowl and will be played at Mar-a-Gaza provided Trump Construction can get our military in and out in a timely manner. And, you can sure bet that the new silly kickoff rules that Trump calls “stupid” will return to the good old days of ‘full steam ahead’ to make sure the kick off receiver gets his bell rung. “The worst part of the Super Bowl, by far, was watching the Kickoff where, as the ball is sailing through the air, the entire field is frozen, stiff.” “College football does not do it, and won’t! Whose idea was it to ruin the Game?” said that bone spurred football super star. The Question of the Day – will the Eagles visit the White House if invited?

I think J.D. Vance might be getting the attention of our judiciary after some crazy comments he made yesterday on X (formerly known as Twitter.) While we were all watching Patrick Mahomes get clobbered after every snap, ol JD was spouting that judges don’t have any control over Trump’s executive power. On X he suggested that federal courts “aren’t allowed” to limit a president’s “legitimate power.”

As more and more of Trump’s supporters and allies (and 6 of members of the Supreme Court) make similar statements, we come closer and closer to moving from a nation based on democratic principles to one that is governed by an authoritarian, whose biggest goal in life is to have a parade in his honor similar to the ones of his heroes. Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Jong Un, all know how to have a ‘beautiful’, ‘beautiful’ parade with military tanks rumbling down the boulevard and soldiers marching and saluting the Grand Master.

Our “leader” isn’t going to let that Musk get the better of him and make cuts to the federal budget before he has a chance to show what stuff he’s got to offer. He sure showed Musk and us today. He has directed the Treasuring to stop minting pennies. “Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” says he. Actually, I might be in agreement with the ol’ boy on that one. Let’s go after those nickels next. Oh, I get it now. It’s the first step to going total cryptocurrency. Silly me.

Yesterday, February 9th, was my Dad’s birthday. God bless his soul, he would have been 110 years old. Just so you know how I came by my political leanings, when Ronald Reagan was president, Dad used to say, “I just wish I could s**t in that SOB’s mouth.” I’m sure he would be voicing something similar today if he were still around and I’m also sure he is rolling in his grave knowing he now has to share his birthday with Trump’s new executive order naming February 9th as ‘Gulf of America Day.’ Sheesh, what will be next?

With that, I bid you adieu. Blazer game coming up soon and I need to prep. Have a great evening! Ziggyman

Not much to write about today. We are just concluding week 3 of ‘America Becoming Great Again,’ and if I correctly read Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, things are just going splendidly or at least that is today’s spin from her office. Judging from the Index of Consumer Confidence that was released this morning, there are a number of people who would beg to differ. The Wall Street Journal reports, “tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive orders are causing Americans across the political spectrum to feel considerably more pessimistic about the economy than they did before President Trump took office.” “Consumer sentiment fell about 5% in the University of Michigan’s preliminary February survey of consumers to its lowest reading since July 2024. Expectations of inflation in the year ahead jumped from 3.3% in January to 4.3%, the second month in a row of large increases and highest reading since November 2023.” Of course, just like the airplane/helicopter crash, it’s all Biden’s fault. At some point in time that standard excuse ain’t gonna fly and this administration is going to have to own it. Speaking of airplane crashes, I understand we have now had a third one in two weeks, as a plane with 10 aboard is missing in Alaska. I thought that getting rid of the “lib’s woke DEI” was going to eliminate these accidents. That DEI is being replaced by Trump’s DEI, “Dying Economy and Inflation.” Anyhoo, I guess you know who is not happy about the CSI numbers, and according to Ben Meiselas on his Meidas Touch podcast this morning, Trump is having a meltdown as his first jobs report showed a drop in the number of jobs added along with that terrible consumer confidence report.

I guess one other little problem for Donnie right now is a report that a large number of Venezuelans from his home state of Florida and who voted for him this go around are now having voter’s remorse and feel betrayed. The Trump Plan at the moment is to eliminate the Temporary Protected Status for the 350,000 Venezuelans in the US and send them back home. And then there are the Arab Americans in Michigan who now feel dismayed after supporting him during the election only to watch him play servant to Benjamin Netanyahu this week at the White House as he announced his latest real estate development, Mara-a-Gaza, the ‘riviera of the Middle East.’ Me thinks his plan to “take over” and “own” Gaza and relocate Palestinians to other countries is causing some angst among Arab Americans and their families and relatives in Gaza. We also have all the BS he spewed to Black and Hispanic voters about being the only president to ever care about you and then immediately after being elected starts eliminating civil rights programs. Not to be discriminatory, we can’t forget all the MAGA’s who voted for him because he really cared about them and was going to lower consumer prices in the grocery stores, at the gas pumps, save their Medicaid, not touch their social security benefits, and put so much more money in their pocket they won’t know what to do with all of it. Hmmm. Not sure how that’s all working out.

I might think it’s been pretty quiet, but I don’t think many senators and representatives are thinking along those lines, as their telephone lines and emails are on overload status. Between concerns about the executive orders, cabinet nominees, Musk takeover, tariffs, etc. the switchboard is getting about 1600 calls per minute. The normal rate is 40. I would venture to guess that most of those calls are not ones in which an expression of “love the job you’re doing senator. Keep it up bro,” is conveyed. At some point soon, I think that their constituents pissed off frustrations are going to start getting their attention and they will go from a “we’ll be fine” moment to “oh s**t, this is getting out of hand.” One can only hope.

Enough of my facetiousness. It was NOT a quiet week. But, how about them Blazers? Won again. That’s 10 out of the last 11 games. I bet the GOP wishes they could have that kind of winning record. While I was writing yesterday, I had some bread baking going on and what a delicious loaf it was. We’ll be heading back to the mountain tomorrow. Not sure what we will find in the way of snow depth. I just hope that there wasn’t too much to tear my satellite dish down like last year (twice). I’ll be very upset if I have to miss tomorrow night’s Blazer game and Sunday Super Bowl. Have a Blessed evening and remember to say your prayers for me. Ziggyman

P.S. Two people wrote comments yesterday, but they were cut off in the middle of a sentence for some reason. I will try to figure out what that’s all about.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Folks, I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to have an antithesis of Alfred E. Neuman moment. It’s past the “What, Me Worry?” time and approaching the “I’m F***ing Worried” time. Each day I read and see what MuskRat and his band of techie children have done that day, I worry about what’s going to be smacking us in the face in the near future. This unelected “nut case” and the people he has brought in who know nothing about how government systems work and have access to some of the most sensitive data in our government with no oversight from a Congress in absentia is worrisome. The Treasury Department reports that the data this group has access to is “Read Only.” So what, it’s okay for some 19 year old with no security clearance to have access to my Medicare, Social Security, banking information? Tomorrow these techies may create the code to change from “Read Only” to “Modify All You Want.” All it will take is a screw up by these guys so Social Security payments are not processed on time or Medicaid is frozen again or you receive a notice from your bank that there was “unusual activity” with your bank account, and the “s**t will then hit the fan.” That actually may not be a bad thing. That would be the point that “Morons for Trump” would hopefully experience what it is exactly they voted for. While across the country yesterday there were protests in every state about the actions of Presidents’ Musk and Trump over these first 17 days in office, The Trumpster minions were out in force with their pickets (Ha Ha).

I read an article yesterday that spoke about what a wonderful job Trump is doing. The article interviewed people who voted for him and they were just giddy about what he has done in a much faster fashion than they thought possible. I, however, am confused. Eggs and most grocery items have not come down in price. I see on the television that the war in Ukraine, which was supposed to have been taken care of by midnight on January 20^th, is still going on. His minions drank the Kool Aid on Tuesday and think that he negotiated a super deal with Mexico and Canada. He didn’t get squat and President Sheinbaum and Prime Minister Trudeau are still choking on their laughter. We just had the first airplane crash in American airspace for decades that took the life of 67 people. Thank Gawd he got rid of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs so that won’t happen again. According to Newsweek magazine,The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that in the first two weeks of Trump’s second term, nearly 5,700 illegal immigrants had been deported. “If the new administration continues at that clip, one expert told Newsweek, then it would be on track to deport half the number of migrants removed during former President Biden’s last full fiscal year in 2024.” What?!!! That can’t be true! Biden and Harris didn’t do anything about the illegal immigrant problem. Our boy, Donald, is the ‘Immigrant King.’ He told us so. Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order that schools receiving federal Title IX funds could not allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. This makes for a big win with his supporters since it has been such a huge problem. NCAA president Charlie Baker estimated fewer than 10 out of the 510,000 active college athletes are transgender. That would be a whopping .00196%. Big win, Donnie. From the lips of that cross wearing White House Press Secretary, the new mantra for this administration, “Promises Made, Promises Kept.” Karoline, I appreciate your spin, but I’m just not seein’ it.

I guess I’ve got to be careful about my writing after I’ve had a couple of martinis. I got scolded on Facebook Tuesday after I replied to a post from a friend. My reply was similar to my Mountain Man Posting that day where I called Trump and Congress the whores of the MuskRat. Someone replied to my reply and said that I needed to be careful slandering people, but he would pray for me. I replied to him and told him I appreciated his prayers and to have a good day. He replied back with a ‘thank you.’ Now see, that’s the way our different political opinions should be handled.

If y’all would just send me $50.00 and pray for me, I would be eternally grateful. The hottest team in the NBA, Your Portland Trail Blazers!, play Sacramento tonight and are going for their 10th win in 11 games. By hot, I mean winning, although I hear there are some female fans out there who think Blazer Deni Avdija is pretty hot. Have a blessed day. Ziggyman

Wow! Is it Friday yet? I don’t know about you, but all that tariff talk and winning from the “Deal Master” wore me out over the past few days. What a win. Mexico and Canada are going to put 10,000 troops at their respective borders – not newly deployed troops, because they already have that many at the borders. And in the case of Canada, already had plans to spend $1.3 billion on border security that were made 6 weeks ago during the Biden administration. Oh wait! Canada did agree to name Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Whoop-de-doo. What the dealmaker didn’t get that he said was a requirement to prevent the 25% tariffs were concessions from both countries regarding their trade balance. Of course tRump has claimed victory and once again has swooped in and saved us with his masterful dealmaking. Mexican President Sheinbaum is probably choking she’s laughing so hard. I said it a couple of posts ago, but it bears repeating. Americans are being seen globally as the dog that just sh*t on your carpet. Our neighbors are not going to forget what just happened, even if in 30 days his tariffs are not imposed. If you were planning a visit to Whistler or Revelstoke for a ski vacation in the next few months, you might want to stay closer to home and do your “shredding snow” at Snow Bunny Lodge.

Article 1 of the US Constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, known as Congress, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. It details the powers granted to Congress to make laws, including the ability to levy taxes, regulate commerce, declare war, and enact laws deemed “necessary and proper” to carry out its enumerated powers.

Nowhere in the Constitution does it describe the powers of a private citizen to enact the job of Congress. What is happening right now in the good ol’ USA is a coup by a private citizen named Elon Musk with our president and the legislative branch laying on their backs and becoming MuskRat’s whore. This “john” has just been made a ‘special government employee’ by Trump and as such is exempt from some of the rules that apply to full-time government employees, like financial disclosures and conflicts of interest. Special government employees, or SGEs, “are subject to most rules, although sometimes in a less restrictive way,” the Justice Department said. In the past week Musk has announced that he is in the process of closing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); made buyout offers to federal employees similar to what he did when he bought Twitter; gained access to the Treasury Department computer system that is responsible for trillions of dollars in U.S. government payments; and, as we speak, is attempting to dismantle the Federal Office of Education. Heather Cox Richardson in her daily post last night said, “But Republicans are allowing Musk to run amok. This could be because they know that Trump has embraced the idea that the American government is a “Deep State,” but that the extreme cuts the MAGA Republicans say they want are actually quite unpopular with Americans in general, and even with most Republican voters. By letting Musk make the cuts the MAGA base wants, they can both provide those cuts and distance themselves from them. But permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man.” I say, it’s time we start telling our elected representatives that their services are no longer required, so “Get the Hell Out of Dodge.” Why do we need congressional representatives when they have relinquished their job description to this unelected trillionaire and his six man team of engineers aged 19 to 24? If so many departments in our government are being abolished, I expect my taxes will be reduced commensurate with the services I no longer have access to. Yeah, right. I’m not a billionaire, so I will continue to fund the 1%.

With that, I will conclude today’s ramble with a big ol’ DJT sneer and say to all ya MAGA’s out there, I hope everything you voted for happens to you. Before I go, how about them Blazers? Three weeks ago I was screaming “GET RID OF CHAUNCEY BILLUPS. HE COULDN’T COACH A MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM!” Since that tirade they have become the hottest team in the NBA, winning eight of their last nine games. I hope they make it nine out of ten against the Pacers tonight. Have a great evening! Ziggyman

I had just a short time to write yesterday after the kids left, so will make up for it today. There is so much to ramble about that my head is swimming. Tariffs, mass firings, illegal freezes, a MuskRat taking over the government, and a shocking NBA trade. I could add the stunning dress worn by Kanye West’s gal at the Grammy’s, but will forego that commentary. Let’s start with the tariffs, which I touched upon yesterday. As of 1:00 pm today, the Mexico tariff is on pause, but China and Canada are still on schedule. But, as you know that will probably also get paused, especially the Canadian sabre rattling. Why? Because Donnie is starting to figure out in that “highly intellectual brain overflowing with common sense” that this idiotic plan will have serious consequences, all of which will not have the majority of his dimwitted enthusiasts happy about. It was pretty ballsy of FOX News to show the list of goods affecting every sector of our economy as a result of the tRump tariffs. Whoever put that list together at FOX and the person making the decision to report it will probably be fired by this evening. Regarding the decision to put Mexico on hold for a month, this was probably a result of the stock market futures on Sunday night. The Master (in the words of Putin) who judges the strength of the economy by what the stock market is doing, started having a case of diarrhea last night when he was having to share his toilet with the stock market futures. He jumped off the commode, popped an Imodium or two, and quickly called Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, to grant a reprieve. If I was a betting man, I think that there might be some lingering effects of that tummy rumblin’ and Canada will be getting a call before midnight tonight. I love the Premier of Ottawa, Doug Ford, who basically has told fRump to shove it up his diarrhea hole and be ready for Big League retaliatory measures, including “ripping up” the $100 million order for MuskRat’s Starlink satellite program for Ottawa residents in rural areas, and banning all American booze. The Democratic Party in the USA should recruit this guy who has shown he has a spine. I also like the Canadian retaliatory plan to focus on putting tariffs on imported goods in American Red States, like gas and oil. Anyhoo, prepare yourself for, as FOX News reports, higher prices in just about every sector of our economy. And if it comes from FOX News, it’s gotta be true. Right?

Moving on. In an effort to remove all oversight for the Project 2025 Plan and to put in place lap dogs who will bow at the feet of the ‘Master,’ thousands of federal employees have received emails letting them know that the services they provide are no longer needed, so ‘get the Hell outta Dodge.’ This includes prosecutors, FBI agents, Inspector Generals, and personnel at all levels of our federal government. Why does this matter? Because many of these folks have decades of experience dealing with crises that we encounter, and you can be assured that we will have a number of crisis situations in our near future. Who will replace these experienced and knowledgeable folks? Trump and Musk lap dogs who are as incompetent and non-merit based hires as the Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, and RFK Jr. I don’t want to sound like a worry wart, but if you aren’t just a little nervous about what’s going on here, I think it’s time to buckle up and prepare for a pretty bumpy ride.

I’m not happy to learn that MuskRat has performed a hostile takeover of the federal Office of Personnel Management and locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of government workers. Stephanie LaTour, who spent more than 30 years as a government lawyer, said “Citizens, even those who are not federal employees, should care that the whole federal government is being taken over by unelected people like Elon Musk. Who the hell is he? He didn’t win any election.”  I’m gonna say it again. We are in deep doo-doo, my friends.

How about that blockbuster trade yesterday sending the Mavericks Luka Doncic to the LA Lakers for Anthony Davis? The Mav’s will end up regretting this, and like the Wall Street Journal called tRump’s trade war the “dumbest in history,” the Sporting News will probably come out and say this Doncic trade is the “dumbest trade in sporting history.”

BREAKING NEWS: It just came across my screen. The Canadian tariff bluff is now on pause for the next 30 days. So, there you have it. MuskRat didn’t want to lose that contract and Jack Daniels wants to remain on the shelves in Canada. Money talks.

Trump to Trudeau and Scheinbaum: “Stop the drugs, we stop the tariffs.”

I guess it’s snowing at the mountain house, but right now we have some blue sky and no wind at the beach, so I’m heading out the door for a walk. Hopefully it will clear my head from all this sh*t. Have a great Monday evening. Go Blazers!! Ziggyman