Well…it’s a week past the inauguration and despite the hue and cry from the other side…the world hasn’t stopped spinning, the sun still comes up in the east, democracy as we know it still exists and the earth still isn’t flat.

That said…let’s see what really happened.

The President declared a national emergency and is sending military to help secure the border. He said he was going to do this and the troops cannot participate in law enforcement as that would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Numerous illegal immigrant activists have sued over this and I guess we’ll find out what happens later.

He declared an end to birthright citizenship…and to be honest he said he was going to do this as well. Unfortunately…it isn’t as easy as issuing an executive order…the plain text says that born here equals citizenship with a very few exceptions. His lawyers are going to claim that immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” doesn’t apply because the illegals are still citizens of whatever country they came from. However…subject to the jurisdiction of means that you’re subject to arrest,  trial, and imprisonment…and that’s certainly true of the illegals…thus this EO will fail on miserably. My guess is that he will lose at the trial court (and it’s already been injunctioned) and lose at the Appeals Court and then either the SCOTUS will decline to take the case (my guess) or take it and rule 9-0 against him. I also think that he knows all of this…but remember…it’s never his fault and he never accepts blame for anything. Thus…even if he knows it will be overturned he can then say “See, I tried” and deflect blame to the courts. In reality…this EO would affect way more than just illegal immigrants giving birth…it would invalidate the citizenship of most people in the country when you actually look at the wording in the EO and think about how current citizens obtained their citizenship.

He’s fired bunch of Inspector Generals at various agencies…without following the law requiring 30 days notice and explanation of the reasons for the termination in detail. Not sure what is going to happen here…at least some of them have said they are showing up to work today and we’ll see what happens. He is perfectly within his rights to fire them…but he has to follow the procedural rules. My guess is that nobody bothered to research if there were actual rules so it was wrong out of ignorance rather than malice.

He’s deported some illegals…but not really many more than the previous administration was deporting. Again…he ran on this and is doing what he said he would do.

He’s cancelled DEI in the government and defined 2 and only 2 sexes. Again…he said he would do this. And to be honest…around here we believe in merit and not quotas so the way DEI has been typically instituted is wrong. We’re all for advancing people of any race, color, creed, or gender…but do it based on merit rather than potentially hire a lesser qualified person because of some quota. As far as sex goes…we don’t believe in transgender and in other than males and females outside of genetic abnormalities. That doesn’t mean any individual can’t dress how they want, modify their bodies if they want, and sleep with whoever they want…it just means that wearing a dress doesn’t make you a woman. All of those other choices are just that…choices…and we’re perfectly fine with whatever choices one makes. However…genetic males participating in female sports (and vice versa) is simply unfair.

Let’s not forget the outrage over the pardons of the Jan 6 rioters. I realize that the left is adamantly against this…but then they claim that former President Biden pardoning his family members is perfectly fine…and the Republicans claim the opposite in both cases. The real answer is…both Presidents issued pardons as one of their presidential powers under the constitution…and while one may not like it in certain cases or like it in others…that doesn’t matter a rat’s behind…presidential powers are presidential powers and not subject to media approval, congressional approval, court approval or any other sort of approval. Like them or not…tough nuggies. Personally…I don’t think either President Biden’s family or the Jan 6 rioters deserved a pardon…and I believe that the George Floyd protestors who took over police precincts and attacked federal buildings should have been charged with crimes as well.

There’s been a whole lot of hoopla over some of the cabinet choices…and again…a President deserves to have his or her choices for leadership posts. We remain unconvinced of the capabilities of some of them…but hey, the man gets his choices. We will be surprised if any of them except Mr. Rubio are still in their position in 4 years…after all he pretty much fires people all the time.

The wildfires in the PRC are still burning…and while we feel for those people a lot of their problems are self inflicted due to decades of mismanagement. It’s the people’s prerogative to vote in whoever they want in the state and establish whatever policies they want of course…but then don’t blame anyone but yourselves when things go to hell. Santa Anna winds have been happening for decades and blaming the fires on “climate change” while ignoring the lack of ire preparedness and building codes that don’t require fireproofing is just foolish…in fact it’s just as foolish as the building codes in Florida not requiring concrete block houses with tile roofs and raised houses in flood plains near the beach or rivers.

In short…nothing really much has changed in DC…the politicians are still being lying politicians and demonizing the other side and we don’t expect that to change. We really long for the days when compromise wasn’t a dirty word.

Let’s see…anything happening around here? Not really. Connie finished up her concerts with the Southwest Florida Symphony of the Beethoven 9th Symphony and they’re now hard at work getting ready for the Bruckner Mass in late February with the Gulf Coast Symphony. We made some reservations for a trip to San Antonio for an Organ Symphony concert and for Neil’s trip to Botswana next summer. Got the oil changed in both cars, had a couple of Date Nights, got our teeth cleaned and a crown replacement for Neil…and that’s just about it. Oh yeah…it’s been mighty chilly the past 10 days or so…we’ve had several overnight lows in the 40s and Neil has had more than one bike ride where he had to dress up like Nanuck of the North before heading out. 

Neil did get a very nice thank you gift from a lady on one of his photo forums. She wanted to transition from a Surface Windows powered tablet and slow spinning external hard drives for her Lightroom use to a MacBook Pro and asked for help on the forum with the transition. The thread immediately devolved into the typical macOS vs Windows arguments…so Neil sent her a private message telling her that either would be fine but if she did decide to shift platforms he would be happy to to help her offline with the transition. She eventually went with a MacBook Pro and SSD drives to store her images…the latter was the real issue with her former setup…the Surface Tablet was part of the problem as it is underpowered for Lightroom needs but the slow drives were the major contributor. Anyway…he spent probably 10 hours or so over a month on the phone with her and another dozen or so emails solving questions and issues with her. She sent him a couple bottles of bourbon including one that is up in the $80 range that he would not normally buy himself…he protested that it was too much and she said it was way cheaper than a paid consultant would have charged her (that’s true, a paid consultant she would have paid at least $1000 over the 3-4 weeks he worked with her). One bottle of Four Roses Small Batch and a more expensive bottle of Angel’s Envy Rye. 

We’re planning on getting down to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in the next couple of weeks assuming the water levels have gone down enough so that the wading birds can get in. He’s got a request in on the forums to check and see if that’s the case. Hopefully it is and he’ll be able to get me some dadgum wildlife photos to post.

Interesting things found on the net.

Ya might have to think about the old nursery rhyme to get this one…and I suspect most millennials and younger won’t get it at all.

Cyas.