Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Thursday, January 22, 2026

With Anti-ICED Fury Democrats are playing with Fire.

I do disagree with some assertions, The democrats have been calling every Republican administration "Illegitimate" since Bush II, Remember all the Hanging Chads from election 2000.   I remember USA today"Commissioned a study" and President Bush by the criteria had won despite the interference by Al Gore and the lawyers that only sued in 4 heavily democratic counties in south Florida.  Yes Pepperidge Farms Remembers.  And since then, every republican election, the donks would scream "illegitimate" or illegal.  it was like a broken record  er a corrupted MP3 file with them.  The author is correct, they are totally interested in pure power no matter the cost, and if this continues, 


  I don't want to live through "Spicy times" I know what it looks like and  that is the problem with the clowns on the left, they think this is a LARP(Live action Role Play) and that they are the heroes battling the bad guys.  Real life don't work that way.

This is what they are thinking and what the reality will be.



I got this off the NY Post.   

With anti-ICE fury, Democrats are playing with fire

Jeffries accuses Trump of unauthorized military action
01:04
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03:27
Democrats are playing with fire, but it’s the whole country that’s likely to get burned.

For a democratic republic to function, you need certain key elements. 

First, elections must be generally regarded as honest. 

Hakeem Jeffries speaks
Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries are playing with fire when calling for prosecutions of President Trump and his staff, columnist Glenn H. Reynolds writes.Getty Images

Second, candidates and their supporters have to abide by the results of those elections when they occur.

Third, winners of elections must not behave in a way that makes losing the contest a matter of life and death (or lifetime imprisonment).

Democrats are undermining — or just outright wrecking — all three.

On the electoral trustworthiness front, Democrats are standing united against measures to ensure that only legitimate voters can cast votes, and that the votes cast are counted honestly and transparently.

When it comes to abiding by elections, the Democrats have treated President Trump’s victories in both 2016 and 2024 as illegitimate. (In fairness, he did the same in 2020 — but accepted Joe Biden’s presidency after Inauguration Day.)

In Trump’s first term, Democrats formed a “resistance” movement — as if the administration of a duly elected president was analogous to a German occupation government in World War II — and pushed the patently false claim that his victory was a “hacked election” or the product of (nonexistent) “Russian collusion.” 

In his second term, the “resistance” is expanding, with suggestions that Trump is ruling as a “king” — and now with the often violent protests aiming to block the legitimate enforcement of duly enacted immigration laws. 

Democratic governors and mayors in Minnesota, Oregon and Illinois have gone so far as to actively enable the chaos by withdrawing police protection.  

Finally, winners of elections must not pose an existential threat to the losers; they can’t carry out, or even hint at, mass imprisonment or blanket prosecution.  

Take a lesson from history: Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon to seize power in Rome because his political enemies were plotting to subject him to political prosecutions that could have led to his death or exile.  

Caesar saved himself (for a while) — but his action, and the behavior of his opponents that triggered it, killed off the Roman Republic.

Historically in American politics, electoral losers have accepted the results, however grudgingly, and concentrated on winning the next election. 

This new trend of treating Republican electoral victories as inherently illegitimate is a departure — and very dangerous.

It’s made more dangerous by widespread threats from important Democratic figures to prosecute not only Trump and his administration, but lower-level officials — and now, even federal law enforcement agents. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has been raising this specter for months, and other prominent leftists are following his lead.

In September, Jeffries said Democrats would prosecute members of Trump’s Justice Department once they regain power: “Donald Trump and this toxic administration will be long gone, but there will still be accountability to be had.”

In December, he issued a message on X to “all these GOP extremists and [Trump] sycophants … the statute of limitations is 5 years! It will be well beyond the end of the Trump admin.”

We’ve heard similar statements from Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Democratic consultant James Carville and ex-CNN gadfly Jim Acosta. 

This month, the drumbeat got louder amid stepped-up immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, Minn.

Leftist commentator Jennifer Welch recently used her podcast to push “relentless” prosecutions of Trump, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller and other Republicans if Democrats regain power, arguing it would be necessary for “true national reconciliation.”

And just last week Jeffries was back warning rank-and-file ICE officers to expect a Democratic administration to prosecute them for any crimes it could discover (or perhaps, given the history of efforts to prosecute Trump in the past, invent).

“Every single one of these people who we see brutalizing the American people, they’re gonna be held accountable,” Jeffries said of ICE agents.

As Caesar’s experience demonstrates, you can’t have a democratic republic if every election is an existential struggle in which the loser risks extinction. 

People don’t want to be rendered extinct, and they can be expected to take steps to prevent it.

If Democrats keep up this thuggery, Republicans will be all but forced to respond in their own defense — and any action they may take could destabilize the nation even further.

The last time such a breach happened in the United States was in 1860, when pro-slavery Democrats seceded from the country rather than abide by the results of a presidential election. 

That resulted in a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastated much of the nation — a war driven by Southern “fire-eater” rhetoric that’s not unlike what we’re hearing from some Democrats today.

It needs to stop, or the consequences might be much worse this time around.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

"So You Been Laid Off...5 things to do Right away"

 

  I got this from "Art of Manliness, I will Interject in blue my experiences to add to the Author.  I will add this part, When I got hired at AAP"Atlanta Assembly Plant" I was told that unless I screw up, this will be the last job I will ever will have until I retire, well 11+ years later I was walking out the door for the last time.  It was the 2nd time I was laid off, the first time was in 1992, I was working at "Kawneer" as a Door fabricator, I was single, so I scrambled and found another job. Pizza delivery.  the 2nd time I got laid off, was Ford Motor Company, I was married and had a 3 year old son and the search was more desperate because this was during the "Great Recession" and I was fortunate that my present employer hired me after I was searching for a job/career since February 2006 and I got hired 2nd quarter 2007.  I worked various Pizza jobs holding the wolf at bay during this time.  I don't hate "Ford Motor Company"for what transpired, they were in a bad situation.



    This is inside my Ford "Toolbox", that I have in my garage now, you can chase the link that shows the transformation.

   The Article Follows



I'm in my late thirties and have been laid off twice in my working years. This is not an unusual experience, especially in the post-COVID era, which some have termed a time of “forever layoffs.” Nearly half of all working adults have been laid off at some point in their career and most working employees are worried about layoffs on a regular basis.

The first time it happened to me was in 2012 when the small marketing agency that I’d been with for only a year went belly up. I was young, didn’t have many responsibilities in life just yet, and the job hunt went quite well; I secured a new gig within a handful of weeks. The second time I was laid off was in 2024, as part of a larger set of cuts at a billion-dollar tech company I had been with for about three years. Twelve years after my first layoff, not only was the economy wildly different, but I had a family, three young kids, and a mortgage to worry about. It took almost a year of ups, downs, and freelance projects to get back into comfortable employment. Those two instances ended up being pretty different experiences, and yet a similar set of tactics helped me get through both times.  

There will inevitably be a flood of anxiety after you’ve been laid off. But once your heart rate has calmed down and you’re able to move beyond panic mode, do these five things to get yourself in a good position to survive and move forward.  

Nail Down Your Financial and Insurance Logistics  

As hard as it can be in those first days after being let go, you need to start thinking right away about your finances and health insurance. It can be hard to do so without catastrophizing, but it’s important to think clearly and strategically about how you and your family will weather the financial unpredictability of the coming weeks and months.

Insurance

First, consider your insurance situation. Be sure that you have information from HR about when your benefits lapse — it can be immediate, but sometimes it’s a few weeks or even months down the road.

If you’re carrying the household’s insurance and have the option to move to a spouse’s insurance plan, definitely go that route, even if it’s not for the long-term. Having coverage is better than not having coverage.

If that’s not an option, COBRA is a federal government program that allows you to receive the same exact insurance you had with your former employer, for a period of 18-36 months after being let go. The major difference is that you’ll have to pay the entire cost of the premiums. If you’re in a field with good benefits, it may be exorbitantly expensive to pay out of pocket. In that case, your state’s insurance marketplace is where to look next. It can be confusing if you’ve never dealt with it before; your former employer’s HR department may be able to help you find a broker to help with that process. Don’t hesitate to ask them these types of questions.  

Finances

You also have to think realistically about your budget. How much do you have in your bank account? How much severance are you receiving, if any? How much do you have in emergency savings or other accessible accounts (that is, stocks or other investments that don’t have withdrawal penalties, rather than retirement accounts)? Make sure you know exactly how long you can make it without your income.

After Ford, I lived below my means and carried little or no credit card debt, and paid cash for my cars or if I got a note, paid them off real early in case I got laid off.

Next, apply for government unemployment benefits. Each state has their own online portal (and set of rules). You’ll be entitled to a percentage of your previous wages (typically 50%) for an entire year. It’s a hassle, and there are a lot of forms, including weekly online check-ins about your job search, but there’s no reason to not take advantage of unemployment checks. After all, your taxes have been paying into that fund for as long as you’ve been working!

Reach Out and Start Networking

Time to share some harsh truth: In today’s job market, it’s nearly impossible to just apply for a job that you found online and get invited to a screening interview, let alone make it all the way through the lengthy multi-interview + work test process that pervades modern job hunting. In the vast majority of cases, networking will get you farther than scrolling job listings online. It bears repeating: while networking does not necessarily have the same immediate ROI as applying for random jobs, it will net you greater returns in the long run.

For me, I used Monster, any and all resources, my present employer actually called me because they were looking for a particular skillset and my resume had it.

In particular, it’s worth reaching out to your weak ties — those loose connections you made in college or through work or church. You aren’t quite friends with these folks, but know them well enough that reaching out in this scenario isn’t weird. Go creeping on LinkedIn to see where folks work; if a company seems interesting, there’s no harm in sending a message like:

“Hi there! I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I hope you’re doing well — I loved seeing that family picture on Facebook. I wanted to reach out and say hello because I was recently let go from my job of five years. I’m trying to get a feel for what the market is like and what’s out there and would really appreciate a 30-minute chat if you’re willing. If the timing isn’t right, no worries, but it’d be great to catch up a bit.”

If they agree to chat, don’t make it just about finding a job at their company; it really should be a broader focus on if they know of anyone or anything helpful. If you talk and something seems like a good fit, they’ll let you know. (After you talk, make sure to send a thank you note or message!)

Beyond those weak ties, also do some fresh networking both online and in your community. With a quick internet search, you’ll be able to find digital and IRL networks of folks in your industry. Again, the ROI is not always apparent, but genuine networking — with the goal of just getting to know people and getting your name and face out there — always has a way of paying off in the long run.  

P.S. This is a great reason to never burn bridges on your way out of any job.

Set Some “Working” Hours

In my observations, it seems that there are two types of responses to being out of work: either you can’t seem to get off the couch to do anything or you turn that anxiety into a kind of hyperactivity, spending every waking moment on the phone or computer. Both of those approaches have problems that can be remedied by doing your best to set daily “working” hours.

Don’t try to replicate a full work week; set aside 3-4 hours per day for networking, job hunting, building up your skills, and the like. The work of finding work is mentally taxing (and, let’s be honest, often defeating) in a way that a “real” job is not. There’s no psychological security at all; in fact, you’re mostly dealing with feelings of existential dread the whole time. As such, your willpower gets depleted rather quickly. After half a day or so, you’ll experience diminishing returns and it won’t be worth the additional mental energy to keep going. You can only scroll through so many job listings and write so many cover letters in a day before you start to feel your soul escaping your body.

Conduct Career Experiments

My initial response to being let go was, naturally enough, to apply for positions similar to what I just held. That makes total sense and should absolutely be your first plan of attack. Unless you have a sizeable financial cushion, it’s not a bad idea to do this even if you plan on changing careers — it may make for a nice fallback should that other route not work out as quickly as you hoped.

Within a few weeks, though, it was easy to blast through applying for the roles that most matched my resume. After that, I took the liberty of getting a little more creative and looking for roles that I wasn’t perfectly qualified for but suited my interests a bit more. Even though my career has been in online media and marketing, when I was laid off in 2024 I branched out and had a couple interviews outside my comfort zone, including with a small coffee roaster and a large airplane manufacturer. I even considered going back to school. I didn’t end up doing any of those things, but I thought long and hard about them and did learn a lot about what it would be like to jump industries, to start at the bottom of a workplace food chain, and the practicalities of starting fresh.

If you’ve ever thought of doing something different with your career, perhaps being let go is the spark you need to jumpstart that process. Don’t be afraid to look outside of what you know, especially if it’s an industry that’s been hit hard with layoffs (perhaps making it all that much harder to get a new job in that field).  

Do Your Best to Relax

One of the things that bothered me most — and which happened both of the times I was laid off — was hearing from folks about how I now had some time to sleep in, relax a bit, and enjoy “funemployment.” As if! There was no way I could sleep in or really even remotely enjoy myself while in the midst of desperately trying to find a way to replace that income as soon as possible. It’s very hard to relax when you’ve been laid off versus when you’ve left a job on your own terms, even if you’ve been lucky enough to receive severance pay.

That said, each time it’s happened to me, I forced myself to at least do some activities that would normally bring me joy — even if they didn’t immediately do so in the moment. For me, it was hiking/walking every day, reading, and doing some extra cooking/baking. While there’s a time and place for some true vegging out with Netflix, it’s best to shoot for a more active type of relaxation that comes from using your body and brain in a way that you get deeper fulfillment from. Regular exercise should especially be part of that routine. If you just lounge around on the couch all day, you can quickly fall into a pattern that’s hard to get out of.

It’s likely going to be hard to truly relax and let yourself recharge, but at least go through the motions. Some of it will stick and you’ll at least build up a good routine of caring for your mind and body while without work.

The job market and the process of finding work after a layoff is unpredictable. I simply cannot say that it will all work out in a timely manner. But if you follow these steps, you’ll at least have a better setup for success than you would have otherwise. Best of luck out there!

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

"The Mask is slipping"...The Left is trying to destroy America.

 

  



 Yes I saw this on Farcebook yesterday while I was working, I had taken a "Microbreak"  Yes I know it was a Holiday, and Yes Aviation is a 24 hour gig, if the public is flying, we are working.  It pays ok, LOL.   The cartoon are compliments of "Townhall.com"

Dear America,
I'm tired of people pretending this is about ICE. Or Renee. Or George Floyd. Or whatever slogan happens to be trending this week. It never is. The cause is interchangeable. The outrage is rented. The script is the same recycled, bullshit. Every single time Republicans take control, the left goes hunting, not for justice, not for solutions, but for a spark. Any spark. A name, a video clip, a headline they can weaponize. Because the goal isn’t reform. It’s disruption. It’s chaos. It’s punishment. Punishment for daring to vote wrong.
They don’t want to persuade you. They want to exhaust you.
They don’t want debate. They want submission. They don’t want peace. They want you miserable enough to cave. So they torch cities, block highways, harass neighbors, scream at diners, target cops, demonize Ice agents, and then stand back and call it “righteous anger.” And if you dare question it? You’re the villain. You’re the problem. You “lack compassion.” It's funny how compassion always seems to involve other people paying the price.
George Floyd wasn’t about Black lives. If it were, they wouldn’t have burned Black neighborhoods to the ground and moved on the second the cameras left. MeToo wasn’t about protecting women. If it were, it wouldn’t have been selectively enforced based on party affiliation. ICE isn’t about immigrants. If it were, they wouldn’t cheer criminals over law-abiding citizens. These are props. Shields. Human meat suits for a political tantrum.
The real objective is hostage-taking. Make daily life so hostile, so unstable, so miserable that normal Americans think, Maybe it’s not worth voting Republican anymore. That’s the strategy. It’s not subtle. It never has been.
I would like to think people are catching on. We’re tired of the fake grief. Tired of the selective morality. Tired of being told to shut up, sit down, and accept disorder as virtue. This country doesn’t belong to the loudest mob or the angriest activists. It belongs to the people who work, raise families, follow the law, and still believe elections matter.
You don’t get to burn the house down every time you lose and then lecture the rest of us about democracy. We see you now.
And the mask is gone. Glenn Reib

Monday, January 19, 2026

Austin Roberts "Rocky"

I figured I would change up the Disco stuff

 I had this song on my "Ronco " Records and I remembered playing this song in the mid 70's and it was upbeat yet sad.  I haven't heard the song for many years until it popped up on my Sirius XM on the "Casey Kasem Top 40 Show Flashback" but I recalled some of the lyrics and figured I would give them a try. 


"Rocky" is a 1975 song written by Jay Stevens (aka Woody P. Snow) and performed by Dickey Lee. On the country chart, "Rocky" was Lee's most successful single, and his only number one. It spent fourteen weeks on the chart, including one week at number one.

In a paradoxically upbeat melody in a major key, Rocky, the title protagonist, tells the tragic story of his young wife in first person. He first recalls the day four years earlier where, as an 18-year-old college student, he met his wife-to-be (unnamed in the song) and recalls how well they hit it off. She accepts Rocky's marriage proposal, and they spend the next several months fixing up an old house to make their home. The two soon learn they are expecting their first child, a girl.

Although the family has its usual problems, the happy memories outweigh the bad. One example is a particularly rambunctious first birthday party for the couple's daughter. With things going well and the family settling in on a content life, Rocky soon gets devastating news: his wife has been diagnosed with an apparently inoperable illness — the specific illness is unidentified in the song — and that she has only a short time to live.

All of this is told in flashback, as in the final verse, his young wife has died. Rocky is now a widower and raising his daughter alone. He feels a sense of sadness every time he looks at his daughter, who strongly resembles her mother, and now doing the same things alone that he once did with his wife. However, he feels a sense of hope, with his wife looking down on him and the couple's daughter and reassures that his love for her will always remain safe.
Each of the first three verses — telling one of the chapters in the couple's life — ends with the woman having a sense of fear of the unknown, expressed through the refrain's statement, "Rocky, I've never...," followed by the appropriate follow-up ("been in love before," "had a baby before," "had to die before") and the unassured, "Don't know if I can do it." However, both he and she realize that the strength they have in each other can help them meet each challenge head on. At the end, Rocky says that "if the world would end, your love is safe with me." The fourth refrain has Rocky envisioning hearing his deceased wife reassure, "Rocky, you know that you've been alone before, you know that you can do it," and that in her own way, she can still advise him in his time of need.