Last Saturday was an interesting, busy and unusual day!

June 21, 2025

On Saturday, the nation celebrated the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which actually shares a birthday with President Donald Trump. This important point escaped the notice of many leftists.

But the left instead celebrated a new “holiday” called “No Kings.” This was enjoyed by celebrants at protests across the nation to complain about the “King,” the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America.

There were many responses to this “holiday” on social media, in emails and elsewhere. Here are a few examples: “Half his orders are tied up in the judicial branch and he cannot get his budget through the Senate his party controls. That doesn’t sound like a king to me.”

“Is a king a President who is caught having stolen classified documents but doesn’t get prosecuted because he is a ‘well-meaning old man with a poor memory?’” 

“A king might be a man who ignores immigration laws and invites anyone to come into the country.”

“A king is a man who allows foreign countries to fly spy balloons over military bases and won’t let the army shoot them down.”

Many on the left are busy financing or participating in violent “protests” resulting in injuries and property damage and destruction on the basis of their belief that illegal aliens — many of whom have been convicted of violent crimes, or charged with them — should not be deported without additional and unnecessary legal proceedings, despite their being known criminals by virtue of the having entered the country illegally, and existing charges and convictions.

Instead, they blame “King” Trump for using federal authorities to find and remove the illegal aliens, as they are required to do by the U.S. Constitution and federal laws.

At one of the “protests,” there was a poster attached to a speaker stand that said, “No Kings,” and below that are the numbers “8647.” In case you are unaware, 8647 means to eighty-six (murder) president number 47.

But the best idea of all is that in a land that actually was ruled by a king similar to the one the left tries to convince us is in charge of the U.S., there would be no protests championing “No Kings.” Or if there were, particpants would be jailed or shot. Maybe the “king” was unaware of this activity.

Also on Saturday, two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot in a horrible assassination attempt “by someone impersonating a police officer,” as reported by Fox 9, Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

“Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed. Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were taken to a hospital for surgery.”

“Gov. Tim Walz called the incident ‘an unspeakable tragedy.’ This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint," Walz said.

“Authorities have identified the suspect as 57-year-old Vance Boelter, who remains at large,” Fox 9 reported. And early comments and reports showed different ideas about the suspect’s connections and motives.

A Facebook friend happily posted a video with the person saying that Boelter “has been confirmed to be a strong Trump supporter, who voted for Donald Trump, as well as a registered Republican.” He showed information that convinced him that Boelter is “a right-wing Christian, nationalist.”

He showed a photo of the New York Post newspaper that said Boelter was registered as a Republican. He also strongly condemned those on the right, whom he said rushed to judgement to blame someone on the left for these horrible crimes.

Soon thereafter, a report from NPR said, “Records from the state's secretary of state indicate that Boelter was a member of the Governor's Workforce Development Board once from 2016 until 2018 and again from 2019 until early 2023. State records indicate that he was not registered with any political party.”

“At a press conference, Col. Christina Bogojevic of the Minnesota State Patrol said flyers reading "No Kings" were found in the suspect's car, though she added that there were no direct links beyond that that authorities knew of,” the NPR report continued.

So, which report do we believe: The New York Post that lists Boelter as a Republican, or NPR that said there was no evidence of political affiliation, but that the suspect had worked for state Democrat administrations?

An additional piece of information is that the two Democrat lawmakers who were targeted were voting against their party on an important issue. Both had crossed party lines to vote against continuing free healthcare for illegal immigrants last week.

That fact, and the fact that “No Kings” material was found in the suspect’s car suggest a liberal position for Boelter. However, a list of potential future targets found in Boelter’s car had Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice organizations and people.

It appears that the murders were politically based, although the evidence available does not make it clear which side was behind it.

The level of political-based violence in this country is unacceptable in this country, which highly respects the freedom to hold whatever political positions one chooses. Here, political decisions are made at the ballot box, not through the use of force.

The Department of Education has not helped public education

June 10, 2025

When the Framers of the U.S. Constitution were creating the document, they were determined to develop a system where the federal government was going to have limited size and authority. Under the federalism concept, some things would be left to the states and localities, and education was one of those things.

They reasoned that some things were better left in the hands of the people who were affected by them, and who could adequately control them, and the federal government was not going to control everything. And, at that time, education was not even considered a function local government.

For roughly 200 years, prior to the establishment of the Department of Education (DOE) in 1979, education at first was handled by the community and religions. Eventually, local and state governments took over. 

And, at the time the DOE was created, our education system was regarded as one of the best, if not the best, in the world.

On March 20, two months after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President, Whitehouse.gov posted the following: “Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to officially begin the process of closing the Department of Education. After more than four decades and over $3 trillion spent with virtually nothing to show for it, President Trump’s bold plan will return education back where it belongs — with the states.”

Today, roughly five decades since the DOE was created, American public education has fallen dramatically lower on the success scale.

Earlier this month, Marissa Streit, the CEO of Prager University, provided information demonstrating how much poorer a job public education has been doing since the good old days.

“Right now, the United States is ranked 28th in the world in math and 36th in literacy. 

“One in four eighth graders lack a basic proficiency in math. One in three are not reading at grade level. Only 13% are proficient in U.S. history.

“In certain cities, the numbers are truly appalling. For example, in Chicago, 22 schools didn’t have a single student who was proficient in reading comprehension, and 33 schools didn’t have a single student who was proficient in math.” 

And, she says, it’s not a problem based on insufficient financing. 

“According to the most recent numbers, the United States spends $17,000 per student. In Chicago, it’s $29,000.”

So, what happened?

In the early days of the country, people were very conscientious about child rearing. They wanted the children to be able to function in society, to take care of themselves when the time came. For many years it was more natural for families and communities to teach their children what they needed to know.

And when public education first appeared, that same philosophy was prevalent. 

Today, not so much. Many factors have intervened, affecting how and if kids learn. Cell phones and social media have a great effect, and that effect is largely left to do damage by so many parents who don’t engage with their offspring as once was the habit. Those fairly new factors are a major influence today, but what happened prior to that?

With a federal agency largely in control, and handing out money, school systems do “what they need to do” to keep Washington happy. Last year, the DOE’s budget was $268 billion, and a lot of that went to schools.

And to a dangerous degree, Washington also does what it needs to do to keep voters happy. Millions of voters are involved in education at all levels. Streit cites political concerns as a major factor for the DOE, perhaps even the greatest one.

In 1979 then-President Jimmy Carter was campaigning for reelection, and it wasn’t going well. She notes that with “the Iran Hostage Crisis, crippling inflation, and gasoline shortages, Carter’s approval ratings had plummeted to a dismal 28 percent.”

Needing votes, Carter looked for support and focused on the largest labor union in the country, the National Education Association. While there was no movement in the country for a federal education department, the NEA had been very interested in that for a while.

“So, Carter gave the union what it wanted — a brand new government department and all the perks that go with it: a big budget, a big stick with which to threaten local schools (adopt this program or you won’t get federal dollars) and a big bureaucracy, which they could fill with their loyalists,” Streit wrote. 

Even so, with three candidates in the race in 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter with 50.8% of the vote to Carter’s 41.0%

The DOE began as a political institution, and not focused on students. Its employees are mostly Democrats, Streit wrote, and it dispenses about $80 billion to schools across the country. It goes to educationally questionable initiatives like “teacher development,” “diversity training,” “critical theory studies” and “climate change” awareness, as well as hiring school administrators, counselors, and their assistants, not on educational objectives.

It is fairly clear that the DOE hasn’t helped education, and has actually made things worse. 

Trump’s efforts at cleaning up the federal government and cutting spending will be aided by shutting down the DOE, and it may well help make public education better.

The One Big Beautiful Bill and the environment in the news

June 3, 2025

A very hot topic in the news lately is the Republican’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB) that passed the House by a razor-thin margin and is now before the Senate. As with many bills of this kind, there are good things, and not-so-good things, in it. And, predictably, the Democrats are 100% against the bill, and even some Republicans have issues with it.

There will be much activity in the Senate for members to get things taken out they don’t like, or to moderate things to make them more acceptable.

And like so many others, this one breaks a common-sense idea about legislation. The OBBB is 1,100 pages long and proposes tax cuts and spending cuts, as well as several other subjects that are not related to each other. The bill contains many things that Republicans and President Donald Trump like and want, hence its title. 

However, as a practical matter, bills before Congress should address 1 item, or maybe a couple that are very closely related, and not be as long as, or longer than, a best-selling novel.

Bills are often used to sneak in a controversial topic that a small number of the members support. It might get passed because the primary topic or topics are very popular, and voting against the bill because of the sneaked-in aspect would not sit well with constituents. Also, having a number of different topics in a bill makes it longer and harder to get through, as well as more difficult to understand and to develop a level of support or opposition.

Ideas about changes to the OBBB are being suggested. The Club for Growth, for example, has a list of 21 “potential improvements,” including: 
* Full and immediate repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act  
* Cut marginal tax rates for individuals 
* Reduction to Corporate Income Tax rate 
* Enhance the qualified business income deduction from 23% to 40% 
* Reduction of capital gains and dividends taxation/investment income 
* Index Capital Gains to Inflation 
* Allow all Americans to save for their futures tax-free through Universal Savings        Accounts 
* Prohibit funding for sanctuary cities 
* Eliminate the SALT deduction 
* Extend Work Requirements to all anti-poverty welfare benefit programs
* Sell federal land

There are also a few articles dealing with the environment that are not widely available. Some of them challenge the popular narrative, while others discuss topics less common than those to which we are accustomed. 

Dr. Roy Spencer is a former NASA scientist, climatologist, author, and former Visiting Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment. He offered this information in a Heritage Foundation article. 

“Warming of the global climate system over the past half-century has averaged 43 percent less than that produced by computerized climate models used to promote changes in energy policy. In the United States during summer, the observed warming is much weaker than that produced by all 36 climate models surveyed here. 

“While the cause of this relatively benign warming could theoretically be entirely due to humanity’s production of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning, this claim cannot be demonstrated through science. At least some of the measured warming could be natural. Contrary to media reports and environmental organizations’ press releases, global warming offers no justification for carbon-based regulation.”

Two “Key Takeaways” from the Heritage article are:
* Climate models that guide energy policy do not even conserve energy, a necessary condition for any physically based model of the climate system.
* Public policy should be based on climate observations—which are rather unremarkable—rather than climate models that exaggerate climate impacts.

Appearing in emails and elsewhere is this: “After nearly two decades of accelerating ice loss (with losses reaching about 142 billion tons per year from 2011–2020), Antarctica saw a dramatic shift between 2021 and 2023.

“During this period, satellite data (GRACE and GRACE-FO missions) show the Antarctic Ice Sheet gained about 108–119 billion tons of ice per year.

This gain was especially pronounced in four major glacier basins in East Antarctica (Totten, Moscow University, Denman, and Vincennes Bay), which had previously been rapidly losing mass.”

Another article discussed a lesser-known factor that affects our environment. “A recent scientific study confirms that changes in Earth’s orbit play a key role in triggering ice ages. These shifts, known as Milankovitch cycles, affect the planet's climate over tens of thousands of years by altering the amount of sunlight reaching Earth. Based on current orbital patterns, researchers estimate that the next ice age could begin within the next 11,000 years. This discovery deepens our understanding of Earth's long-term climate cycles and the natural forces that drive major environmental changes.”

And Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Carnegie Institution for Science say Earth is cooling far faster than we thought — and will turn into a dead, rocky planet like Mars much sooner than expected.

Our environment is very complex, with factors of which most people are unaware that affect it. They are rarely talked about outside of scientific circles. But they have an effect on the environment that cannot be ignored. We must always be aware of the “big picture” of our environment.