Once again there is so much going on in our world that it's time for a random thoughts and observations column.
I find it interesting that so many of the left-wing progressives are more upset with President Trump and Elon Musk for exposing the fraud and waste in our government then they are at the people who have abused their authority and misspent our tax dollars. That's what emotional thinking combined with ignorance produces.
More and more bureaucrats are resigning their position rather than comply with audit requests from the White House staff. People that come up, by the way, have not only the legal authority to conduct audits of the agencies under the control of the executive branch but also have the responsibility to make sure our money is being spent in the manner intended. There are many more who are refusing to comply with the audits and are actually destroying documents or rewriting computer programs that restrict access. The only reason to do that is because they have something to hide.
It's incredible that the newest argument being made against deportation of illegal aliens is that we also have citizens who commit violent crimes such as sexual assault and murder. It shouldn't be necessary to point out that citizens have more rights than illegal aliens. But, for once the woke crowd has a pretty good idea. If they want to take our criminals and put them on a plane to Colombia or Venezuela, you're not going to hear a complaint from me.
Most of the protests that I saw on Tuesday, the national day of protest for Mexicans against deportation, included people waving Mexican flags, denouncing the United States and shouting Viva Mexico! Somebody needs to remind them that they are free to leave. We won't stop them at the border if they want to cross back home. And why was it that only the Mexicans were protesting? It doesn't matter which country you came from, if you are here illegally you're going back.
People complaining about tariffs on imported goods raising prices and hurting everyday Americans need to remember, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, and pretty much every other country in the world have significant tariffs on US goods being exported to their countries. In many cases it is a 100% tariff or even higher. Which, by the way, hurts American people, because now we don't have the manufacturing jobs that we used to have which provided good wages to the American worker. It also can make our goods produced here more expensive for us because those companies can't sell as many units and take advantage of economies of scale.
Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass announced they would waive permitting requirements in areas affected by the wildfires to facilitate a quicker reconstruction process. The onerous process in California typically adds 10% to 15% to the cost of building a single-family home and more for multifamily units. It can also take two years to get all of the permits in order to begin construction. So that is a good thin, yet they are not going to make the waivers permanent even though they are admitting that their own requirements have a negative effect upon the average person.
I put a post on my Instagram account in which I said if you want to see a woke person's head explode ask them this question: since many of you voted for Kamala Harris because she was a woman and have said you would vote for a woman simply because you want to see a woman occupy the White House, what would you do if that person announced that she now identified as a man, especially if he was white? The response was exactly what I knew it would be.
