Category: Good and Hard

New Ohio law bans DEI, outlaws faculty strikes, requires U.S. civic literacy course.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday signed a sweeping higher education bill that forbids diversity, equity and inclusion programs and trainings, bans faculty strikes, and requires students pass a course on American civic literacy to earn a degree.

The new law also requires public institutions maintain institutional neutrality, and not weigh in on controversial political or social issues not relevant to their primary mission. It also enacts tenure review, which will allow administrators to fire poor-performing professors. And it bans DEI statements for admissions, hiring and promotion decisions.

What’s more, it requires classes to “demonstrate intellectual diversity” for approval, as well as to be included in universities’ general education requirements.

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Sam Corcos and the IRS Mess

I’ve been writing about the government’s data processing troubles for quite awhile now, and particularly since DOGE started to find where the bodies — well, I was going to say “bodies were buried” but that’s wrong. The government’s data processing corpses aren’t buried. They’re stinking shambling zombie bodies shuffling through the corridors seeking brains.

Of course, as wild wastes of money are uncovered, everyone and their aforementioned brothers, brothers-in-law, and politically connected people outside government have been screaming, while we regular old taxpayers are saying “God oh God, how did we get in this mess?”

So, Sam Corcos, CEO of Levels, a health startup, and Scott Bessent, secretary of the Treasury, were on Laura Ingraham’s show on March 20, talking about data processing at the IRS in particular.

The IRS has come up before — for example, when Musk and the DOGE boys discovered there were people up to almost 400 years old still active in the Social Security records, which are closely tied to the IRS records ever since the IRS declared that line on the Social Security Card about “not to be used for identification” was no longer operative.

Corcos was brought in to work for the Treasury to look at the IRS modernization program and its operations and maintenance budget. Now, the modernization program is new development — they’re attempting to build a more modern system and infrastructure to handle what the Social Security Administration does, while maintenance and operations is the budget that pays for just keeping the existing system running.

Corcos is running a successful startup — have a look at its website. So he has some expertise in software development. He started looking at the IRS systems.

It was interesting, if by interesting you mean “enraging” and “obscene.” The IRS has had this ongoing modernization program in operation since 1990 — that after a previous modernization program called Tax Systems Modernization (TSM), which started in 1986 and was finally declared a failure in 1997. Then there was the Customer Account Data Engine (CADE), which was launched in 2001 and terminated as a failure in 2009, having delivered about 15 percent of its planned function.

The existing system, as I’ve written about before, is based on IBM mainframes and written in COBOL and Assembler — that is, directly as machine instructions.

The current modernization program, according to Corcos, is currently 30 years behind schedule and $15 billion over budget. It’s been 35 years in development, and is now “five years away” from completion. And has been since 1996.

According to Secretary Bessent, the hangup is “entrenched interests” like consultants and contractors. Eighty percent of the IRS’s $3.5 billion budget goes to outsiders. Bessent says, “That’s not efficiency — that’s a racket.”

Corcos says the top priority is to turn this around. “The IRS spends way more than any private company would on a program like this. We’ve cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget. … It’s about asking tough questions and trimming the fat.”

It’s easy to blame the government developers, but Corcos says the developers are excellent — it’s management that’s the issue. “You see contracts — $10 million, $20 million, $50 million — and ask ‘Why are we doing this?’ Everyone shrugs. … You cancel it and nothing breaks. Inertia’s running the show — it just takes someone who cares to start asking questions.”

Gun maker closes up shop in N.J., taking 146 jobs with it to the Midwest

Gun manufacturer Henry Repeating Arms says it is making a strategic move to relocate its operations out of New Jersey and into the Midwest, according to a statement released by the company.

The manufacturer will close its Bayonne operations and move jobs to its newly expanded headquarters in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. It will also move jobs to two additional facilities in nearby Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

The closure affects 146 workers at the Bayonne operation according to WARN notices filed March 13.  Henry employs more than 800 people, according to its website.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, Henry’s New Jersey facility manufactured 35,069 firearms in 2022. This included 25,012 rifles, 1,433 shotguns, and 8,624 handguns.

The company said in the statement that the move out of New Jersey accommodates the need for increased production capacity and better supports the company’s future growth driven by innovative firearms design.

“We are putting all of our eggs in one basket, the Wisconsin basket, because it makes us more efficient, more productive, and allows for more collaboration amongst our design and engineering teams, all while sustaining and enhancing Henry’s solid reputation for quality,” said Anthony Imperato, Founder and CEO of Henry Repeating Arms.

“With about 400,000 square feet of cutting-edge manufacturing operations in four facilities within minutes of each other, Henry Repeating Arms is well positioned for its next chapter.”
Andrew Wickstrom, president of Henry Repeating Arms, said the new phase will help the company grow.

“This transition allows us to double down on what we do best — making world-class rifles, shotguns, and revolvers right here in the heart of America,” said Wickstrom. “Our Wisconsin operations have been essential to our success for a long time, and now it is the cornerstone of our bright future.”

What did I say about the OODA Loop?
I’m not the only one who understand that this is getting inside the demoncrap’s abilities to handle scandal after scandal

Here’s the Brilliance Behind Trump’s Move Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’.

President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell Sunday evening. As my PJ Media colleague Catherine Salgado reported, Trump declared Joe Biden’s pardons void due to the suspicious use of an autopen and serious questions about whether Sleepy Joe even knew what he was rubber-stamping.

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

But here’s what’s really fascinating — and telling. Biden’s social media team remains suspiciously silent. Not a peep from his X account disputing the autopen accusations. These are serious allegations that merit a response, yet we got nothing. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?

Trump’s second Truth Social post cuts right to the heart of the matter: “The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.” This isn’t just about pardons; it’s about who was really running our government.

How is this going to play out? Proving that Biden wasn’t aware of these pardons might be an uphill battle. But something tells me that’s not the point. While I suspect that it will be virtually impossible to prove that Biden didn’t authorize those pardons, I still think this may have been a brilliant move by Trump.

Here’s why. Every legal challenge, every court filing, every public statement will keep this scandal front and center. Even if the pardons ultimately stand, the damage to Biden’s legacy and the Democratic Party will be done.

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WINNING: Ontario Caves to Trump on Tariffs.

Let me tell you what winning looks like. While the liberal media was busy predicting economic catastrophe from President Trump’s latest tariff moves, Canada just blinked — and blinked hard.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who thought he could play hardball with America by slapping a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota, just got a swift lesson in real negotiation.

“Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday evening. “We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t [need] your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

And then, Ontario responded by placing a 25% tariff on electricity coming into the United States, but Trump didn’t blink:

I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.

After Trump threatened to double existing tariffs on Canadian goods and announced a new 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum, Ford’s tough-guy act fell faster than Joe Biden on the steps to Air Force One.

“Today, United States Secretary of Commerce [Howard Lutnick] and Premier of Ontario Doug Ford had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada,” the pair said in a joint statement Ford shared on X.

Secretary Lutnick agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday, March 13 alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline. In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.

The lesson here is simple: America First works. While Biden spent years letting everyone walk all over us, Trump is back to showing the world what real leadership looks like. Canada’s quick surrender proves what conservatives have always known — strength gets respect, and respect gets results.

Whether Canada will budge on tariffs remains to be seen, but Trump showed who has the upper hand in these negotiations because Ontario quickly caved. The economic relationship between the U.S. and Canada might be facing a test, but with Trump at the helm, there’s no doubt who’s going to come out on top. That’s what making America great again looks like in real time, folks.

Wyoming Bill Targeting “Gun-Free Zones” Becomes Law Without Governor’s Signature

A bill scrapping many of Wyoming’s “sensitive places” is now law, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon isn’t too happy about it. Though Gordon allowed the law to take effect without his signature, avoiding a veto override fight with the legislature, he had some choice words for the overwhelming number of lawmakers who voted in favor of HB 172.

In an open letter to House Speaker Chip Nieman, Gordon said he was “tempted” to veto the bill, just as he did with a similar measure in the 2024 session.

In my veto message, I noted my major concerns with the disregard shown to local jurisdictions and the infringement of our state Constitution’s intrinsic separation of powers. Importantly, my message also included a call to action for school districts and colleges around the state to review their gun free zone policies while my administration pursued reviewing the State’s.

Reflecting this legislature’s lackadaisical effort to openly debate and work on this legislation before sending it to my desk, it is tempting to copy and return my same veto letter.

Compare that effort to the work done locally from the time of my veto letter, when only four school districts had firearm carry policies, to today, when 60% of school districts (according to the Wyoming Association of School Administrators), every single community college, and the University of Wyoming heeded my call to action and took up the debate.

This exercise in local governance was noticed by a handful of legislators, who attempted to pass amendments to HB0172 recognizing that local process and grandfathering in those local decisions. Such lack of regard for the principle of “government closest to the people” so fundamental to our Republic is stunning.

It’s true that many of these educational institutions debated rescinding their gun-free policies over the past year, but many of them (including the University of Wyoming) chose to keep their prohibitions in place. Gordon might be okay with that, but a “government closest to the people” doesn’t always act in the people’s best interest or with the Constitution in mind (looking at you, Jim Crow).

I stated in my veto letter last year that I support the repeal of gun free zones. I also respect local self-government.

My actions underscore my passion for both, which is not diminished. I am left to imagine this legislative session was never about “self-defense” or a common sense effort to extend carry rights. More to the point, it was always about the legislature grabbing power.

I find it interesting that this legislature’s vote was not so much about the sanctity of Second Amendment rights as it was who got to control them. Gun free zones are not repealed – they are now determined exclusively by the legislature.

Well, yes. Does Gordon take issue with firearm preemption laws that establish a statewide policy rather than a patchwork quilt of local ordinances that vary from town to town? It sure sounds like it. And despite the governor’s contention that HB 172 is nothing more than a legislative power grab, the bill still contains a major carveout for political subdivisions, which still have the authority to prohibit “the open carry, display or wearing of a firearm in its facilities or on its campus”.

In fact, that language may prove to demonstrate the weakness of HB 172 if, say, the University of Wyoming interprets that language as giving the Board of Regents the authority to prohibit concealed carry… which is, generally speaking, the “wearing” of a firearm”.

States chafe at having the Federal Government tell us what we can and cannot do. So I understand why local governments would harbor that same attitude for an “all-knowing” Cheyenne. To wit, the ability to debate nuances and advance wise, considered policy is not a strength the people of Wyoming have witnessed during this legislative session.

Honestly, if Gordon truly feels that lawmakers made a massive mistake in adopting HB 172, the courageous thing for him to do would have been to veto the bill and let the legislature override his decision. That, however, would have demonstrated Gordon’s political weakness, so instead he chose to let the bill become law alongside a heaping helping of snarkiness directed at the representatives and senators who voted for it. That’s not a good look for the governor, but at least his pouting won’t be standing in the way of Wyoming residents exercising their Second Amendment rights in more publicly accessible places once the law officially takes effect on July 1, 2025.

 The Great Unraveling.

For the last few weeks we have been watching one of the greatest collections of weaponized autistics in the world going happily about their task of unraveling exactly how much of our money was directed through previously undetected means for previously undetected and wholly curious ends. The Doge crew are going at it with the zeal and joy of unleashed rat terriers turned loose on a field of suitable prey, in tracking millions of dollars’ worth of our money into various progressive slush funds.

And interesting things are suddenly happening. Although coincidence is not causality, by any means 
 still, there are things that people on the conservativish side of things have wondered about for the last decade. Things like 
 strangely well-choreographed protests, with tens and hundreds of participants (who mostly have no obvious means of support) appearing almost like magic, carrying professionally-printed signs. Hmmm 
 we all wondered in times past: who is footing the bill for all this?

It may very well turn out that we all were – just as it has turned out that USAID grants went out to support practically every cause beloved by progressives nationally and world-wide. To non-governmental organizations playing hopscotch with international migrants. To champion the causes of LGBTWXYZLOL-whatever, around the world in our own back yard and in our elementary schools. To progressive media voices, like the BBC. What the ever-loving H-E-double hockey sticks? Don’t those smooth-talking euro-snob Jew-haters get enough moola from their own government, they have to vacuum up from us as well, like a coke addict snorting a line as long as the US-Canada border?

And while I’m on the topic of our very own dear media, what about the ongoing slaughter of careers and the driving rain of pink slips falling at CBS and NBC? Joy Reid, Lester Holt and other expensive performers are being pried out of their comfortable sinecures. Personalities whom I have never particularly followed and only hear about when they have been spectacularly stupid on camera and the conservative blogosphere takes notice. I imagine their superiors pried them loose, like a dentist with an impacted molar – but why now?

Is it because top management at the various media enterprises have suddenly realized with the election of Trump that a large chunk of the public ignores them – and they have not anything like the power that they thought they had? Have they figured out that advertising on their programs was money wasted, and business sponsors know it? This is a new world for our national establishment media organs, where CBS Sixty Minutes counts for naught, and a podcaster like Joe Rogan may have put Trump and Vance over the top with an important segment of the voting public through doing searching, free-form long-format interviews.

Or could it be that laundered government funds were holding up our own media, at least as much as paid advertising? Now that such funds are being short-stopped – is that another reason for the collapsing of our media’s house of cards, now that the gravy train has come to a halt?

What Kash Patel Should Do As Acting ATF Director

I spent the weekend with a number of Second Amendment advocates, including some names you’ll probably recognize. That’s where I first heard that Kash Patel, in addition to being director of the FBI, was named to helm the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He wasn’t who I thought would get tapped, but the general consensus was that this was a good thing.

And I agree.

But now that Patel is in charge, what is on the agenda?

He started at the FBI by getting rid of some of the dead weight in that agency as well as some who used their positions to push their own agendas. Now, he’s got a chance to do that again.

With Kash Patel now in the position of Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency is in for a shake-up.

One thing that Patel can do is get rid of problem employees who have gone out of their way to infringe on the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. This purge has already started with the firing of the ATF’s Chief Council, Pam Hicks. Hicks was a rabid anti-gun attorney that chose to defend very constitutionally dubious rules. Although Hicks was a good first step, without removing other problem members, nothing will change.

The first person that Patel should remove from the Bureau is the ATF’s Deputy Director, Marvin Richardson. Mr. Richardson has been behind some of the ATF’s most controversial rules. He was the driving force behind the reclassification of pistols equipped with braces. Mr. Richardson proposed reclassifying pistols with braces and unfinished firearms frames during a 2020 meeting with the Biden transition team without President Trump’s knowledge….

Mr. Patel should look at Matthew Varisco. Mr. Varisco is the ATF Assistant Director for the Office of Field Operations. When he worked out of the Philadelphia Field Office, he pushed the targeting of companies selling firearms precursor parts, including issuing a cease-and-desist letter to JSD Supply. This action was taken before the rule change of pistol frames. He pioneered the idea of firearms “structuring.” According to Varisco, if someone buys firearms parts from multiple companies to build a working firearm, that is “structuring.” This use of the term was the first time it was used outside banking crimes. He claimed that the possibility of “structuring” meant that all 80% firearm frames needed to be treated like completed guns. Mr. Varisco’s idea of “structuring” made it into the final rule.

Other names are, of course, mentioned, and I happen to agree. Far too many people achieved success in the ATF by supporting gun control, which would expand the agency’s authority by virtue of trampling on the rights of the American people and by reinterpreting rules as much as possible to expand it.

And a lot of names went into that.

However, there’s a lot more to be done than just clean house. Patel needs to also purge the ATF of some of the problematic interpretations of federal law, and do so in the way Brandon Herrera talked about in a video regarding what he would do as ATF director. No, the AK Guy isn’t calling the shots at the ATF, but Herrera says he came up with this after close consultation with groups like the Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America and they happen to be smart ideas.

Whether the end goal is to merge the ATF with the FBI and get rid of the agency entirely or not, the truth is that we have a golden opportunity to preserve gun rights for the next generation. Kash Patel strikes me as the kind of guy who would be interested in doing it just this way, too, so I’m incredibly hopeful going forward.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s appointment of Kash Patel (and Dan Bongino at the FBI), we’ve got the opportunity to make the FBI great again and bring the ATF to heel. The two-tiered system of justice that we’ve seen from the Biden administration is a thing of the past and the bureau is on its way back to being America’s premiere law enforcement agency.

The AP’s feelings get hurt; it’s a First Amendment crisis!

The Associated Press (AP) makes its money selling stories to other media outlets. It pays “stringers”—reporters and photographers—around the world to submit stories, which it makes available to its subscriber outlets who can’t afford to send reporters and photographers around the globe.

That’s a good thing for smaller media outlets like local new stations, but it’s also a very bad thing because then the AP makes mistakes, or goes woke, so do its subscribers who have no way of knowing they’re making those mistakes. They do know they’re going woke, but even if they’d rather not, their choice is to play along or drop the AP feed. A good example of the AP’s wokeness and anti-Americanism is this:

Shira Bibas’ sons “died in captivity.” An honest and accurate account would say Bibas and her boys, 4 and 10 months, were savagely strangled by Hamas terrorists, and their bodies were clumsily mutilated so Hamas could claim they died in an Israeli airstrike, a perversely stupid and easily exposed lie.

The AP also uses its style guide to enforce wokeness and media outlets, including the majors, happily go along. It’s an enviable perch atop the media hierarchy and the AP has become used to certain perks, among them, a prominent chair in the White House Press Room.

Until, that is, the AP decided to keep calling the Gulf of America the Gulf of Mexico, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, surely with the permission of President Trump, banished them, also from Air Force One and other places and events. This is also surely a part of Leavitt’s reshuffling the Press Room deck, booting established outlets replacing them with new media.to give new media a chance.

The horror.

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Trump’s pick for FCC chairman…..