Flotsam and Jetsam - Bongino to FBI

Roger Kimball at Am Great, The Three Amigos Give a Progress Report, "Trump’s team delivered a historic first-month briefing, touting DEI’s demise, economic gains, and global diplomacy—leaving the press stunned by the candor and transparency." Mark Penn@Mark_Penn, "Voters are mostly liking what they see in the first month of the new presidency. By 57/43 voters say Trump doing a better job than Biden in advance look at poll coming out Monday. Job approval at 52 but closing the border, cutting waste are hugely popular. So is resetting merit as the prime hiring and contracting principle . . ." At Da Signal, Trump Is ‘Reclaiming Control’: Senior White House Official Issues Warning to Defiant Bureaucrats. Liz Stauffer at LI cites VDH at His Finest: ‘We’re in the midst of a counter-revolution.’ Althouse is upset when Stephen Miller — at CPAC yesterday — called America's left wing "communists" and even "commies:" "Trump] is fighting for the fundamental idea that this country belongs... not to the radical left Communists...." Jon Gabriel @exjon, "The endgame here seems to be the Chief Executive running the Executive Branch. And as a constitutional law professor who somehow never read Article II, this confuses and frightens me." Quote 60 Minutes@60Minutes, "“The endgame here seems to be controlling every single apparatus of the federal government directly out of the White House. And that's just never been how we've understood executive power,” says Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown." John Ringo SF Author@Jringo1508, Follow up to the Jacksonian Thread: The State sees the Jacksonian Revolution as what it is in some ways: A coup. The entire term is 'Coup de tat.' Blow to the State. It has metaphorically severed what they think of as the REAL head of government: Long term government 'experts' who pass policy as the Blob agrees no matter which party is in or out of power . . ." Chris Jacobs at Da Fed sees Health Policy ‘Experts’ Won’t Give Up Marxist Agenda Despite Election Trouncing. From Twitchy, EGG-CELLENT! Data Republican ENDS Dem's Favorite New Anti-Trump Talking Point in One Straight-FIRE Post Ken Martin@kenmartin73 "Spotted in Wisconsin. $10.49 for eggs. Prices keep going up and Donald Trump isn’t doing a damn thing about it!": DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "Dear Mr. Martin, I appreciate your willingness to engage in the discussion on egg prices, especially considering how Andrew Yang’s foray into the topic ended in well-documented embarrassment. As I demonstrated this morning, the data clearly links rising costs to bird flu culls under the Biden administration . . ."

Chad Felix Greene@chadfelixg "I dunno, Sara, how many?" Quote Sara Sidner @sarasidnerCNN, "Question: How many times does someone have to do a Nazi salute before you call them a Nazi?"

Sundance at CTH hosts President Trump's Full CPAC Speech and President Trump Delivers “Unity Remarks” During National Governors Association Dinner. ET reports At CPAC, Trump Urges Republicans to Stick Together. Jon Levine at NYPo, Vice President JD Vance wins CPAC straw poll with overwhelming majority.

No doubt causing liberal heads to explode everywhere, NYPo reports Trump announces commentator Dan Bongino as FBI deputy director: ‘Congratulations! Insty, says OPENING A BIG GAP IN DAYTIME RADIO: Trump names Dan Bongino as Deputy FBI Director. "The press will say “Trump appointed a talk show host,” but Bongino has a lot of law enforcement experience and a lot of knowledge of high-level Washington." From Fox, Following key wins, Trump poised for cabinet completion in record time. "'Americans voted for a bold, new direction in Washington. Senate Republicans are delivering it,' said Majority Whip John Barrasso." Reagan Reese at Da Caller explains How Senate Sherpa JD Vance Helped Guide MAGA’s Favorite Cabinet Picks To Confirmation. Breitbart notes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Fires Two Four-Stars, Top JAG Officers. Driscoll at Insty, MSNBC’S JOHN BRENNAN: ‘Absurd’ To Say Fired Joint Chiefs Head Had Woke Agenda. "As Obi-Wan would say regarding Brennan’s dissembling, “What I told you was true, from a certain point of view:” John Brennan and the Aging Radicals: “Brennan is the classic illiberal liberal, an aging radical who openly favors in America the repressiveness he once excused in the Soviet Union. Recall that at the height of the Cold War he was rooting for the Reds. He has admitted that in 1976 he voted for Gus Hall, the American Communist Party’s presidential candidate. That radicalism never left Brennan’s system.” Related: He’s Sweatin’: John Brennan Whines About Being on Kash Patel’s ‘Enemies List’ and It’s Glorious (Watch)." Zach Yost at Am Con thinks Trump Should Scrap the 2023 National Defense Industrial Strategy. "As has happened in seemingly every other aspect of the government, DEI has openly infected the Pentagon’s military industrial base (MIB) planning. In a section titled “Expand Recruitment of Non-Traditional Communities” the report bemoans that the MIB lacks sufficient diversity and that this indicates that “companies may not be targeting diverse groups for employment”. Why does this matter at all? Well, according to the authors of the report, “(DEI) is important to ensure that we have an industrial base that reflects the nation itself”."

CNN whines Zelensky says he's ready to quit if it brings peace, pushes back on US demand for Ukrainian minerals. ET cites Bessent: US–Ukraine Minerals Deal Will Transform War-Torn Nation, Protect US Taxpayers. From Nora Dimitrova Clinton at LI, JD Vance Was Right, Europe Needs To Save Itself, "My take on his Munich speech: If we want the European “fascinating legacy to endure, Europe must respect and safeguard the national sovereignty and cultural traditions of the separate countries that comprise it.”" At Brownstone, Mike Sutton opines a Bad Peace Is Better Than Good War. Mark Tapscott worries Is the Potential Second Wuhan Virus China's Warning to Trump to Back Off? At WUWT, Trump Cuts U.S. Scientists Loose from IPCC Report: Climate Juggernaut Takes a Hit. Shooting News Weekly reports Commerce Department Has Ended Biden Administration’s Ban on Small Arms Exports.

Nick Arama at RedState sees NPS Staffers Hang Upside-Down Flag in Yosemite to Protest Firings -- They Don't Get Reaction They Expect. Sunny @sunnyright "Okay you’ve sold me. Fire more of them https://x.com/luckytran/stat" Insty, TELL THE THEATER KIDS WHO SEEM TO RUN THE BUREAUCRACY TO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP: "An upside-down American flag flew over Yosemite National Park yesterday, as the park plummets into ruin because of Orange Hitler’s fascist plan to make the federal government somewhat smaller. “So the number of employees who run the park and serve visitors has PLUMMETED from about 1,151 to about 1,140, with NPS staffing falling from about 451 to about 440. It’s like we don’t even have a national park there anymore, Hitler Hitler Hitler. Eleven actual employees have been laid off, in a savage Nazi assault on the very concept of public parks. These numbers show that Yosemite National Park has been ruined, and everything has gone straight to hell, and the park is under attack.”"

From NewsMax, Musk Says All US Govt Staff Must Justify Their Work or Lose Jobs. Althouse records NYT's whine Let Musk justify his method in 5 bullet points. "I'm reading "Musk Says Government Workers Must Detail Their Workweek or Lose Their Jobs/Elon Musk has drawn inspiration from his 2022 takeover of Twitter with the tactic. His threat on social media of termination did not appear in an email to federal workers requesting the work summaries" (NYT)." It would be a long list, but I think he could let GROK handle it. Breitbart reports U.S. Marshals Service reportedly deputizes Elon Musk’s private security detail, allowing them to carry guns in Federal facilities. He's wise not to trust it to the feds. At Hat Hair, Words Are Violence Alert: Rep. Robert Garcia’s Comment About Musk Probed by U.S. Attorney for D.C. Atop Da Hill, Patel tells FBI employees to pause any responses to DOGE email. At ET, Trump Urges Musk, DOGE to Get More Aggressive With Spending Cuts and Reform and Buffett Offers Advice to Trump on Government Spending After Paying $26.8 Billion in Tax. NewsMax cites 'Wolf' Belfort: Musk Ending Waste of 'Biblical Proportions.' From NYPo, DOGE, EPA cut $67M in grants for lefty groups pushing Biden’s ‘environmental justice’ mandate. Jeffrey A Tucker @jeffreyatucker, "I'm concerned that many people do not understand the historical and institutional context in which the DOGE labor reforms are unfolding. They look at this as if these are some random, chaotic, arbitrary, strange, and even cruel measures to impose on a devoted civil service. The reality is very different, and I'm not even sure that Elon entirely understands this. For more than a century, even dating back to 1883, the civil service has grown and grown without check from the elected branch, either the presidency or the legislature . The bureaucracies have ballooned from a few to 450 or so. The bloat and absurdities have grown too. Get this: no one has ever known what to do about it. Not Coolidge, not Hoover, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Clinton, no one. No president has been able to crack this nut. The only reforms ever to have made it through are those that make the administrative state bigger, never smaller. . .  " 

From Twitchy, WHOA: Alexander Vindman Reportedly a USAID Recipient and DAMNING Revelations All Start Falling Into Place. Rebel A. Cole @RebelACole, "Why on earth did USAid send money to this traitor and how much did it send? How about his traitorous twin brother? Did he ALSO get USAid funds? This is outrageous." Marc @gopher_marc, "Makes you wonder what he was trying to retrieve from the closed USAID office." Tom Knighton at BA, NRA Takes Shot at Outrage Over Tax Dollars No Longer Going for Anti-Gun Advocacy. Listener says RICO the NGOs, "Make them pay or it will happen again."

Tom Knighton, AG Bondi Fires ATF General Counsel. John Kass, The Man the Deep State Hates: Kash Patel. Sarah Arnold at TownHall reports the CIA is Set for a Historic Shakeup: Largest Firing in 50 Years Underway. Sundance hosts DNI Tulsi Gabbard Discussing the Blurred Line Between Liberty and Security. "While I do not expect Mrs. Gabbard to be a heroine in defense of liberty, perhaps she will pause government weaponization and privacy destruction for a few years."

At WokeSpy, DNC Doubles Down on Failure, Releases “Deeply Embarrassing and Useless Document.” DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican "I've considered making ActBlue donor information searchable and providing instructions on how to request a refund if donations were made without your authorization." Chaya Raichik@ChayaRaichik10, "So you’re admitting mail in voting can be tampered with??" Quote, Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma @lisa_liberal "Trump wants to control the USPS so he can fuck with mail in voting. TRUMP WANTS CONTROL OF THE USPS SO HE CAN FUCK WITH MAIL IN VOTING." Teri Christoph at RedState, Global Elites Are in a Panic As Musk-Backed AfD Is Set to Make Electoral History Today in Germany. 

At NewsMax, Trump Administration Directs ICE Agents to Find, Deport Unaccompanied Migrant Children. WJ, Kristi Noem Revokes Protected Status for 500,000 Haitians, Opens Them Up for Deportation Althouse finds "Wealthy residents of the Hamptons demand perfection"... and live in fear of Trump's deportation agenda. "The NYT drums up sympathy for completely unsympathetic rich people who've been relying on illegal immigration to serve their various needs! The rich are not the "They" in the headline, "They Help Make the Hamptons the Hamptons, and Now They’re Living in Fear/Latino immigrants care for some of America’s most lavish beachside mansions. Their disappearance would affect the wealthy, too."" At Breitbart, Homan: Reassigned Acting ICE Director Will Now Focus on Interior Alone, Arrests Will Go Up and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro Claims Biden Moved Tren de Aragua into U.S. Twitchy, WATCH: Whistleblower Spills ALL THE TEA About Approving Social Security Disability Benefits for Illegals.

/luckytran/status/1893541082803114200

🚨BREAKING: Whistleblower reveals she was encouraged to approve long-term disability for illegals, essentially securing lifetime Social Security benefits for each approval: pic.twitter.com/Etemct6Gdh

— DOGE NEWS- Department of Government Efficiency (@realdogeusa) February 23, 2025

At The Bugscuffle Gazette Citizenship, "That gets complicated."

Stacy McCain is enjoying the fact that Joy Reid Is Out at MSNBC. I could find a ton of links for this, but I don't care that much, I never watch her, and only see clips when she says something exceptionally stupid, which seem often enough.

At Da Caller, Federal Trade Commission Launches Probe Into Big Tech’s Censorship Of Americans.

Breitbart, Trump’s Education Dept. Announces Investigation After Boy Wins High School Girls’ Pole Vault Competition in Maine. "The investigation comes after Maine school sports officials publicly said last week that they planned to defy Trump’s order protecting women and girls’ sports and spaces in favor of a state law recognizing “gender identity.” Subsequently, a transgender-identifying boy won a high school girls’ pole vault competition in the state on Monday." "At the meet, the boy jumped 11 feet, “a mediocre score for boys, but within just one inch of Maine’s girls’ pole-vault champion, who set an 11-foot, one-inch record last year at the National Pole Vault Summit,” The Maine Wire reported. “He jumped a full eight inches higher than the second-place winner among the girls.”"

At NYPo, Deroy Murdock predicts there's No going back: The left will fail in trying to reverse Trump’s DEI death sentence.

The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: A Rare Winning Week up and garnering clicks at the Other McCain.