Life Goes On
As I write this, the federal government is shut down due to Senate Democrats’ determination to not pass a clean, continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating—as they have done countless times in the past. My guess is that nonessential employees have received notices not to report for work. Mind you, I don’t know how happy I would be to report to a job that deemed me nonessential, but that’s beside the point. As I look around, I still see traffic on the road, I can still make doctors’ appointments, and I can shop for vegetables. The gas stations are open, the stock market is hitting new highs, and Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and North Dakota are pumping insane amounts of energy out of the ground. Restaurants are full, as are shopping mall parking lots. Women are still getting pregnant. Folks are still going broke and getting rich. YouTube is alive and well, as is X and Facebook. Larry Kudlow tells me that the economy is growing at 3.8%. It appears that life goes on even if Congress can’t seem to agree on the budget. And that gets me to my point: Life goes on despite what happens on Capitol Hill, the White House, and the Washington Beltway. I assure you that the rancher in Wyoming doesn’t give a shit what Congressman Hakeem Jeffries or AOC has to say. He is worried about his family, his health, cattle, water, feedstocks, grass, and land. He worries about his debt, which miraculously is under better control than the debt of the United States. He monitors cattle markets and their prices on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). So whatever is important to you, just focus on that. Washington political calamities come and go and always will. I assure you that what goes on in your house is more important to your family than what goes on in the White House.
Race- and Sex-Based Contracting
Chicago is the focus of investigations into “race- and sex-based contracting” practices involving city contracts. The Director of OMB (Office of Management and Budget) in the Trump Administration is set to pause $2.1 billion in payments for Chicago infrastructure projects due to “race-based contracting concerns.” That will affect the Red Line extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Projects. Media reports that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that “this week, USDOT issued an interim final rule barring race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grants.” The Feds are concerned that Chicago is engaged in unconstitutional practices. Basically, the Feds told Chicago that federal monies can’t be used if they discriminate based on gender, race, and so on. Frankly, if I were a Chicagoan, I would want the best pipefitters, electricians, plumbers, and contractors working on the project to get it to the finish line under budget and on time. Lesbians, gays, and nongender-specific binaries MAY be hired if they are qualified, just like the rest of everyone else, but they don’t get a free pass to skip to the head of the line—not with MY taxpayer dollars anyway.
Not the Best Place for a Screaming Match – The United States Senate
While not exactly the Hatfields and the McCoys, what transpired recently on the floor of the United States Senate was, well, epic! Conservative Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is one of my favorite politicians. As the senior Senator from Missouri, he serves on both the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees—two places he belongs and excels. Hawley is more than a bulldog. In classic attorney style, he knows every answer before he asks the questions and then watches as witnesses perjure themselves as they attempt to evade the truth. It is truly a spectacle to watch this Yale Law School grad questioning former Biden Administration officials about what they knew and when they knew it.
A recent line of questioning was reported by Fox News on September 30, 2025, where Hawley got into a shouting match with Gregory Jackson, Jr. who served as a Deputy Director in the Gun Violence Office of the Biden White House. Jackson then headed CJAF (Community Justice Action Fund). It seems the shouting match involved creating safe spaces for two-spirited individuals. No, I didn’t make that up. My first and second thoughts upon reading it were . . .
HUH? And HUH?
Hawley was probing Gregory about a report published by the organization under his direction. The report in question? How about A Policymakers Playbook to Reduce Gun Violence Without Policing Communities. Hawley saw this as advocating the defunding of police and using those monies to invest in “programs that acknowledge the need for safe space initiatives led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, trans and gender-nonconforming people.” Hawley took all this in, understanding 90% of the lingo, and then asked, “What’s two-spirit?” Jackson replied, “Well, I don’t know exactly.” Hawley pressed on, driving home his point that the organization was in favor of defunding the police and investing instead in bullshit two-spirit community programs, and the former director didn’t even know what that was. Hawley called him out as a disgraceful head of a disgraceful organization. Gotta admit, my favorite Senator has balls. He ended his line of questioning with this line: “And, frankly sir, your policies are absurd. They’re absurd.” I really wish I could have been there to witness the exchange from the Senate gallery.
Predicting the Unpredictable and Getting You to Believe
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the media attempts to predict the unpredictable, whether it is the direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the economy as a whole, the course of interest rates, or even how long the government will be shut down this time. Journalists prognosticate about it all, confident in their abilities to know the unknowable. Were they to stop doing this, even for a day, God forbid, there would be no news, and they would be relegated to simply reporting the facts. Mass media has become a fountain of opinion, often devoid of truths, regurgitating the editor’s biases, especially those dealing with politics.
If you doubt this, consider a story from ABC News reported on April 29, 2025, in which they asserted that a recent reports and analysis by the Media Research Center indicated that 92% of major media coverage of President Trump in his first 100 days in office was negative. And we are not talking about analyzing a few stories. They researched an astounding 1,841 statements made by journalists, reporters, anchors, and experts on the three major networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS. I have come to understand that mass media is engaged in subterfuge and dishonest reporting in an attempt to sway public opinion to their preferred narrative. The bottom line is this: Don’t trust mass media.
Please note: The fact that I am criticizing and warning about mass media while quoting them in the same article is not lost on me.
It’s Time to Make AOC Irrelevant
The media is addicted to ratings like junkies to cocaine. Anything they can do to increase eyeball count, clicks, and downloads is fair game. In researching Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, widely known as AOC, I stumbled upon something strange yet interesting. An April 14, 2019, an article posted to the Axios website indicated that Media Matters for America announced that during the six-week period from February 25 to April 7, freshman Congresswoman Cortez was mentioned 3,181 times, or about 75 times per day on Fox News. At what point did Fox go from the reporting news to obsession? The fact that a lot people know who she is does not make her relevant. What makes a member of Congress relevant is if they do an outstanding job representing their constituents and the whole of America.
During the recent government shutdown, AOC called on all supporters to laugh at “MAGA men,” calling them insecure as she pointed to President Trump’s point man, Stephen Miller. Miller is the White House Deputy Chief of Staff to President Trump and one of the most brilliant and articulate advisors in the Administration. Miller’s intellect and financial acumen dwarf AOC’s, even on his worst day.
AOC’s fiery socialist rhetoric is reflected on her platform. She supports Medicare for all. As America is already on the brink of financial insolvency with over $37 trillion in debt, she would increase taxes, especially for the rich, because in her words, “They are not paying their fair share.” This has become the clarion call of socialists worldwide.
If AOC had her way, the entire country would be unionized. She favors a ban on the federal government doing business with non-union businesses and seeks to reverse many of President Reagan’s policies.
She would make all undocumented individuals citizens. Mind you, these are illegals who broke the law when they entered the United States. I prefer President Trump’s approach: Deport them. If all these illegals magically became American citizens, I foresee one-party rule as Democrats would have a permanent grip on power. I invite you to review AOC’s platform on her website: https://www.ocasiocortez.com/issues.
As you review each of her priorities, ask yourself these questions:
- Who will pay for all these changes to the fabric of America?
- What will her changes do to the nuclear family, work ethic, and society as a whole?
- Why has her socialist policies failed everywhere they have been tried?
- Why
The time has come for the American people to turn her off, tune her out, and admit that being enthused by her was a result of media hype. There is actually nothing to see here, folks.
Note: The Democrats insist that Republicans are a threat to democracy. Are they not aware that we live in a Constitutional Republic? A slow read of the Constitution may be time well spent.
America at a Crossroads
It’s as if America has awakened from a four-year-long bad dream. I stay informed of Congressional hearings as they question Biden Administration officials regarding wasteful spending and excessive and unregulated grants to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Tens of billions of taxpayer money has been funneled into nonexistent programs and wasted, much of it ending up in the hands of Biden supporters. I want to see hearings continue. I want to see referrals to the Justice Department. I want to see subpoenas, grand jury indictments, and trials. And most of all, I want to see jail time. I want to see the rotted deep state pulled out by its roots, the perpetrators behind bars, their wealth forfeited, and their reputations tarnished. Until that happens, America remains at a crossroads with unlimited potential but severe risks around every turn.
The Most Fatal Disease
Our Founding Fathers grappled with the “evils” that political parties represented and wanted to avoid anchoring them on young America. In George Washington’s farewell address, he noted:
“The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” Washington foresaw that continual and unending fighting between parties may well spell the doom of the newly founded Union.
Alexander Hamilton referred to political factions, known today as parties, as “the most fatal disease” of governments—and for good reason. Many of the Founders bid England farewell to leave behind the civil wars that were all too common among various political factions. The last thing they wanted was to birth a new country with the same perilous flaws.
Had America listened to our Founders’ warnings, we might be a very different country. Today, Democrats are continually battling Republicans for control, and vice versa—conservatives and liberals in never-ending tug-of-wars for dominance on the national stage. Rather than working together for the common good, to govern justly and advance the interests of all Americans, the political parties vie for power in an effort to install their political platforms as the law of the land.
Not My New York
Resentment and anger boils up in me as I watch the news of demonstrations taking place in New York, with masked individuals carrying signs supporting Hamas and chanting death to Israel. If I were still a New Yorker, I would pack my bags and leave in disgust. This is not my New York.
Growing up in Manhattan in the 1960s and 1970s, I recall demonstrations about gay rights, civil rights, and the Vietnam War. I also remember pipe-wielding construction workers blocking the path of rioters. But today’s demonstrations smack of evil and genocide with participants covering their faces for fear that the police will photograph them. My take is that when demonstrators breach barriers, police should tear off the demonstrators’ face coverings, pepper spray them, and take their picture for their database. With mayoral elections right around the corner, the odds on the favorite is a Muslim whose speeches include support for Hamas. I can’t understand why New Yorkers who have the ability to leave have not left yet. Let all the high earners move South, and let the remaining inhabitants devour each other. The city government can tax the poor and whoever was dumb enough to stay.
Billions in Democrat-Inspired Solar Power Up in Smoke
President Trump has promptly begun tearing down the Green New Deal. Biden deep-sixed coal production, and Trump reintroduced coal back into America’s energy portfolio. It was the same thing for eclectic cars (EVs), exporting of natural gas, the closing and opening of vast tracts of American waters and Alaskan lands to energy exploration, and the list goes on and on. What one administration outlaws, another administration revives. The continuing tug-of-war creates an unimaginable waste of time, energy, money, and resources as the factions fight for their own interests while America’s debt soars to unimaginable heights.
There is no better example of this than the Obama-era Ivanpah Solar Power Facility located in California’s Mojave Desert. This was to be a stellar example of American ingenuity in clean power production. The $2.2 billion project is enormous, with thousands of computer-controlled solar mirrors and three towers, each over 450 feet tall. The project is massive both in scale and taxpayer funds wasted. Construction began in 2010, mind you, and it is now 2025.
The Obama Administration issued $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees. Obama’s Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz characterized the project as “an example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.” The project is a poster child for the inefficiency of government- subsidized energy schemes. Ivanpah has never produced electricity on the scale envisioned and relies on natural gas for its operations. The Energy Department is now making plans for the permanent shuttering of the project. Billions have been wasted, and American taxpayers are on the hook for the $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees. With $2.2 billion down the drain, I am still certain that some folks managed to line their pockets and get rich.
Founders Argue over the Federal Government’s First Shutdown
Before resigning from George Washington’s Presidential Cabinet in the mid 1790s, both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson watched as the Democratic-Republican Party and Federalists were at each other’s throats. The war of words escalated into bitter personal attacks. Frankly, I’m surprised that members of Congress did not attempt to shut down the new government. Mind you, during the first Congress, there were 20 Senators and 65 Representatives, many of whom had hissy fits over the idea of a small central government versus a large, powerful federal government. I could see it now:
Congressman James Madsion (VA): Don’t you see? This Union needs a strong central government, and in order to create that, members of Congress need to put in long hours, which will require on-site coffee shops, laundry services, massage parlors, and shoeshine and newspaper stands in the halls of Congress. And the American people will need to pay for it. We can’t do all this work with at least some of the creature comforts of home.
Senator Abraham Baldwin (GA): James, if we were to open all these shops in the Capitol, it would double the size of the government. I’ll grant you a coffee stand, not a shop, mind you. Just a stand but nothing else. Do your own damn laundry, and have the Mrs. give you a massage when you get home. And if you don’t agree, I’m gonna padlock this building and shut the whole place down. I will shut down the government! So, what ya gonna do?
I Admit It
- I grew up with all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
- I went everywhere with my Sony Walkman attached to my belt
- The cord on my kitchen wall phone extended 25 feet
- I owned a boombox
- I carried a pocketful of dimes in case of emergency
- I owned 300 vinyl LP record albums
- I owned far too many 8-track tapes
- In 1980, my job required me to call businesses right out of the Yellow Pages
- I hated floppy disks, America Online (AOL), and modems
- As a kid, I wore both PF Flyers and Buster Brown shoes
- I got my fingers stuck in between the typewriter keys
- I loved getting ice cream at Howard Johnson’s
- I remember when comic books were 10 cents, ditto for a slice of pizza
Lunatics Running Harvard – Again
It appears that Harvard University announced that it has hired a new visiting professor. My guess is that it is someone who doesn’t qualify for a full-time position. This individual is a gender and sexuality professor who is an actual drag queen who goes by the name LaWhore Vagistan. This individual will unfortunately be teaching two classes: Queer Ethnography; and RuPaulitics, Drag Race, and Desire. Should any readers of The Equal Opportunity Times be paying for their child to attend Harvard, I would strongly suggest that you pull them out and request a refund. At that point, you may enroll them in the trade school of your choice.
’Til we meet again . . .
You will find many of my interviews on my website at https://eocritic.com.
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